Before we chat out the Droid 4 there’s a bit of other news we need to address right quick. As you’ll surely notice, we’re doing smartphone reviews a little differently now. That said, this video and my basic hands-on impressions are just the first in a three-part series reviewing the phone. Stay tuned for what comes next!

Alright then, back to business…

The Motorola Droid 4 has spent exactly 24 hours on shelves, and from the time I’ve spent with the phone I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that it’s doing quite well there.

If you keep up with phones you know that the Droid 4 is a big deal, the fourth in Motorola’s Droid brand (which happens to be one of the most successful Android brands we’ve seen to date), and a QWERTY-packing beast if I may say so. The thing about it, however, is that the keyboard (any physical keyboard) is becoming less and less necessary.

To be clear, I think that the Droid 4 keyboard is possibly one of the best I’ve ever used. It gives a solid tactile feedback and is fairly easy to navigate. The fact that it’s backlit only adds to my infatuation. But… a combination of great auto-correct and Swype nearly makes that keyboard useless.

I understand that back in the day typing on a touchscreen was super annoying, since the auto-correct wasn’t quite up to snuff. That’s not really the case anymore, and I almost feel like anyone who insists on a physical QWERTY is doing so simply because they’re so used to it.

Truth be told the transition can be tough from QWERTY to soft keys, but Swype can make that transition a lot easier and you’ll ultimately be much faster in the typing department.

Still, for those of you who demand QWERTY-style satisfaction, I can’t recommend a better handset than the Droid 4. The 4-inch screen compliments the size and weight of the phone perfectly, and it honestly doesn’t feel that much smaller than the 4.3-inch Razr display.

Watching movies and playing games is still just as great, in terms of size, but it only made me feel “eh” in terms of quality. Sure, it’s plenty bright and pixel-dense, but it doesn’t have the wow factor of these 720p displays we’re seeing lately.

I didn’t experience any serious issues with the phone in terms of performance, and it would seem that 1GB of RAM combined with that 1.2GHz dual-core processor can handle basic tasks and multitasking just fine. At the same time, I’ve only spent about 24 hours with it, so things may change with heavier testing.

As you can see in the video, the Droid 4 looks much more like the Razr or Razr Maxx than it does its other Droid family members. I almost wish that Kevlar fiber casing was along for the ride, too, but that might ruin one of the best things about the Droid 4: its $199.99 price tag from Verizon.

We’ll be hitting you with more on the Droid 4 as the week progresses, so stay tuned for the rest of our review.

Note: I mistakenly stated in the video that the Droid 4 runs Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, when it in fact runs Android 2.3.6. My apologies.

It’s been nearly a month since Verizon officially spilled the beans on the QWERTY-packing, LTE-sporting Motorola Droid 4, and now we finally have a release date to go with it. According to the nation’s largest wireless provider, the oft-delayed Droid 4 is due to hit sales channels on February 10 complete with a $199 price tag.

Though its slimmer brethren have enjoyed most of the limelight lately, the Droid 4 is still a welcome addition to the Verizon lineup as their second LTE device with a full physical keyboard.

While it doesn’t yet run Ice Cream Sandwich, the rest of its feature list — 1.2 GHZ dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, 8-megapixel rear camera, and 4-inch qHD display — make for an attractive little package. Additional features like government-grade encryption, a sprinkling of enterprise-friendly apps, and support for Motorola’s Lapdock 500 only sweeten the deal, especially if you’re looking to dump that work BlackBerry for something a bit more robust.

To celebrate the release of the Droid 4 (and a buy-one-get-one promotion on the Droid RAZR family), Verizon is also reviving their double-data promotion, so penny-pinching phone shoppers may want to jump on the deal before it disappears again. Of course, if Verizon keeps doing what they’re doing, there’s a real chance we’ll see that double data promo rear its head once another noteworthy LTE smartphone comes down the pipeline.

Looks like that flubbed product page turned out to be right after all — Verizon Wireless has just announced that the ever-so-slightly-tweaked Droid RAZR MAXX will indeed be hitting store shelves on January 26.

One of the big issues Jordan noted in our original Droid RAZR review was that the battery could leave some heavy users in the lurch, but that (hopefully) won’t be the case with the RAZR MAXX. Despite sporting near-identical specs to its slimmer brother, the MAXX also packs a fairly ridiculous 3300 mAh battery without sacrificing too much of its alluring profile.

The MAXX also features 32GB of onboard storage, a considerable bump up from the original’s 16GB allotment. If you can live with just a little extra heft (the MAXX comes in at 8.99mm thick, compared to the original’s 7.1mm waist line), this is looking like the Droid RAZR to beat.

With the RAZR MAXX preparing to take its place in Verizon’s top-tier smartphone pantheon, you can expect the price tag to match its status. It’ll cost $299 out of the gate with a two-year contract, though the penny-pinchers among you should know that the original model (sans SD card) has recently dropped down to a more reasonable $199.

Short Version

The Droid RAZR has been one highly anticipated phone, but can its performance keep up with the hype? Is it too big to be comfortable? Is there a catch that comes along with that 7.1mm waist line? Does 4G LTE paired with a dual-core processor really make a difference? Well, it’s basically the entire point of my existence to answer these questions for you. So off we go.

Features:

• 4.3-inch 540×960 qHD Super AMOLED display
• Dual-core 1.2GHz processor
• 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, autofocus and video capture in 1080p
• 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera
• Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread
• 4G LTE
• MSRP: $299 on-contract, available November 11

Pros:

• 7.1mm waist line makes the Droid RAZR the thinnest smartphone in the world
• Truly beautiful and unique design paired with an equally gorgeous display
• MOTOCast support — stream any media seamlessly between PC and handset

Cons:

• Tends to overheat a bit, and thus slow down
• Is so light that it feels cheap, and for a $299 phone that’s not exactly what you’re going for
• This should be expected, but battery life was a bust

Long Version:

The Droid RAZR for Verizon is no doubt a beastly little phone. The combination of 4G LTE support and a dual-core processing chip makes for quite the snappy experience, and the design speaks for itself. While I’m not sure I can tell you it justifies its $299 price tag, I can say it certainly deserves its spot as one of the top contenders for this holiday season.

Hardware:

There’s one thing to be said for the Droid RAZR’s design before all else: it’s crazy thin. So thin, in fact, that I’m not sure pictures or video will do it justice. If you’re on the fence, please go pick up a device in-store and get a good feel for it in the hand because I have a feeling the RAZR suits a certain type of taste.

To start, it was a tad big for me. I’ve always thought I had pretty large hands for a girl and I still felt awkward maneuvering around with the RAZR, pulling it in and out of pockets, or simply switching from portrait to landscape. Perhaps comfort with that is something that will happen over time, but it’s worth considering. Then there’s the matter of weight. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but just because this or that gadget is the “lightest” doesn’t mean that’s a good thing. The lightest gadgets are usually the cheaper gadgets, made of plastic and thus easily damaged. The Droid RAZR teeters on that line pretty nicely, but I have to admit that at times it felt a bit lighter than I wanted it to. Especially for a phone so thin, a little heft in the hand would go a long way to ensure sturdiness.

Design-wise, I’m pretty much infatuated with the RAZR. Android devices tend to all blend in together, and when you venture deeper into the category of Motorola-branded Android devices it only gets worse. The RAZR has a different style than its fellow Moto brethren — while it keeps some of the design language like that classic Moto hump on the back, the sharpened and squared off corners and Kevlar fiber casing give it a distinct look. Not to mention, that back panel feels really nice in the hand, like a pricey alternative to soft touch rubber.

If anything shines on the Droid RAZR at first glance, it’s the screen. The 4.3-inch display is a beauty in its own right, and if you enjoy gaming or mobile video you definitely need to think twice about this guy. Plus, the display is coated with Gorilla Glass to protect against small drops and the ever-famous “back pocket test.”

Software:

As you should already know, the Motorola Droid RAZR runs Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread and (thank the heavens!) without MotoBLUR in the way. There is still some form of a manufacturer skin running over Android, but it’s not nearly as heavy and annoying as Blur, by any stretch of the imagination.

Quite unexpectedly, the majority of the Droid RAZR’s pre-loaded apps are actually useful, and may even play a role in your purchasing decisions. For one, NFL Mobile is free to 4G LTE customers through the 2011 season. Then, we have Netflix HD which simply must be put to use on such a stunning and massive display.

I assume the MotoCast integration will also be a big pull for many consumers, and in my time with it it proved to be a nifty little service. It’s a similar idea to Apple’s iCloud, albeit less comprehensive. But on the whole the service is quick, easy and reliable, which is all you can ask out of streaming media between devices. It makes tasks that used to be tedious seamless, and makes you wonder why we haven’t been doing this all along.

Verizon’s left its print on the RAZR, in the form of the V CAST Tones, Verizon Video, and VZW Navigator apps. Meanwhile, Moto has included MOTOPRINT and the MotoACTV app, which lets you sync information between your MotoACTV smart watch and the RAZR. Quickoffice also made its way into the RAZR, along with GoToMeeting, which is sure to keep any suit satisfied and smiling.

Verizon included the BlockBuster app as well, along with a trial version of Madden NFL 12.

Performance:

Speaking of Madden, it killed the RAZR. Motorola made all kinds of unrealistic promises about the RAZR’s battery life at the unveiling in NYC, and none were more skeptical than myself. 4G radios suck up a ton of power — they don’t mean to, they just can’t help it. That said, 4G LTE devices will always be positioned for swifter deaths, and the RAZR was no exception. With about six hours of standby and about 3 hours of pretty intensive use, including gaming, video, and browsing, the Droid RAZR let me sleep in this morning after it died. Motorola’s thrown in a number of battery saving tools, which I highly recommend for any potential owners of the RAZR.

As far as basic performance goes, I didn’t have much to gripe about with the RAZR. Switching between home screens, scrolling within the browser, and pinch-to-zoom commands within the image gallery were all as smooth and snappy as I had hoped. The browser loaded up pages with no trouble at all, but I was surprised to find that the Android browser got beat by both my iPhone 4S’s Safari browser and the Focus Flash’s IE9 Windows Phone browser. I ran the tests both over WiFi and the phone’s respective networks and in both instances, the Droid RAZR came in third. Still, there’s no reason to complain. IE9 is one of the fastest browsers I’ve seen on a phone, and the iPhone 4S… well, that’s where the real decision-making needs to happen. If you’re an Android loyalist, try not to let this particular speed factor matter too much. Otherwise, consider the iPhone 4S. Especially if you’re always surfing the interwebs.

One thing I noticed rather quickly is that the Droid RAZR is hot. Yes, it’s a sexy phone to say the least, but it also overheats really easily. Within moments of booting up the phone and getting started it was burning up, and did so each time I used it. The slow-down in performance is a small one, to be sure, but if you’re paying attention you’ll notice it. The hotter the phone gets, the longer it takes to load up apps, or resume apps during multi-tasking.

The camera on this bad boy simply can’t be ignored. Still images taken with the 8-megapixel shooter are high-quality to say the least, but what really impressed me was the RAZR’s video capture abilities. Taking stills, the camera adjusts for a while to get focused, and then takes another second or two to snap the picture. Mobile photography obviously doesn’t do well with any form of lag, so that was a bit sad to see. But video capture, on the other hand, is quick and responsive.

The camera seems to focus well, even if you’re a bit shaky. Plus, I noticed that while shooting video the camera adjusts really quickly between dark and light settings. On many phones, the time it takes to go from a dark room out into the sunlight can be excessive, but I found the RAZR to squash those concerns pretty quickly. Naturally, the Droid RAZR packs a port for HDMI-out, so you don’t have to be shy with your 1080p videos either.

Conclusion:

All of Motorola’s pre-release hype set my expectations pretty high, but did the Droid RAZR manage to win me over? Almost. I still don’t think the lightweight feel lends itself well to the premium sort of experience Motorola was going for, and the RAZR’s battery left a lot to be desired. Even so, Motorola has managed to put together a really impressive (not to mention gorgeous) package with the Droid RAZR, and there’s a lot to like if you can live with a few shortcomings.

Motorola fans may still be riding high on the announcement of the Droid RAZR, but Droid-Life has just gotten their hands on images of yet another Motorola handset in the works: the DROID4.

The DROID4 apes some of the RAZR’s industrial design (like the funky corners and non-removable battery), but it sadly isn’t quite as svelte thanks to the spacious slide-out five row keyboard.

Like its direct predecessor, the DROID4 also sports a 4-inch display, although new additions like an LTE radio and the ability to sync to the MotoACTV fitness device manage to set it apart from previous models.

In addition to all that fun stuff, it also packs a few of the things we’ve begun to take for granted in our high-end smartphones: a front-facing camera, HDMI output, and the ability to shoot 1080p video.

If the four discrete soft keys haven’t given it away yet, the DROID4 doesn’t yet run ICS — it’s reportedly stuck on Android 2.3.5. This may come as bad news for Motoheads hoping for a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich sooner rather than later, but it makes sense considering the DROID4 is looking nearly ready to ship. It’s even got an introductory decal plastered on the screen, which leads me to believe it has a decent shot of hitting shelves before Christmas.

Given the pace at which Motorola seems to be churning these things out, I’m seriously wondering if their engineers have time to sleep.

Images courtesy of Droid-Life

Sorry, Verizon: looks like your exclusivity on the Motorola Droid RAZR might not last all that long. Based on the finer details of some docs pulled fresh from the good ol’ FCC, it looks like AT&T might be getting a RAZR of their very own.

At first glance, there’s not much to be gleaned. The device is constantly referred to as the “IHDP56ME2″ or “M0C2E”, rather than “OMG AT&T RAZR LOOK!” or anything along those lines. It does have all of AT&T’s radio bands (GSM 850/1900 and WCDMA Bands II/V for 3G) — but how do we know this thing is actually a RAZR? The devil is in the details.

You see, Motorola had to design a brand new battery for the Droid RAZR. As their first Android phone with a non-removable cover, the Droid RAZR’s battery needed to be wider and flatter than those they’d built before. They built this new battery and lovingly dubbed it the “SNN5899A”.

And hey, whatd’ya know: as noted by the guys at WirelessGodness, this mystery handset also happens to use the SNN5899A.

Given the legacy of the original RAZR, it only makes sense to get it on as many carriers as possible. Remember the original RAZR? That thing was on every carrier imaginable. You could have started a wireless carrier in your basement and offered the RAZR by the end of the week. AT&T will obviously avoid using the “Droid” half of the “Droid RAZR” name (Droid = Verizon’s branding), but I’d be surprised to see them drop the other half.

The documents of note can be found here.

After the hot mess that was the Droid Bionic Saga (Delay! Delay! Delay! Screw it, release garbage.), I didn’t think I could ever like another Motorola device again. Guess I was wrong.

I just spent a bit of time with the just-announced Droid RAZR, and, at least at first glance, it is… surprisingly great. Dive in for my first impressions, won’t you?

The First Impressions:

• The Samsung-made Super AMOLED screen is, as we’ve grown used to with Samsung’s most recent displays, amazing. The blacks are deep, the color contrast vivid. It’s still not quite as high res as Apple’s retina display, but the difference is a hard one to notice
• The overall device aesthetic is… interesting. Not quite my tastes (perhaps because I’m so used to round corners, while the RAZR is intentionally angled), but not at all off putting.
• No lag. None whatsoever. Of course, we’re talking about a brand new device here with little bogging it down, and Android as a whole is considerably less laggy than it was a year ago — but try as I might, I couldn’t get any of the transitions or animations to stutter.
• New to the Droid RAZR is a feature Motorola calls “Smart Actions”, which allows you to automate certain events based on triggers like location (based on WiFi networks or geofences) and time. Arrive at work? It can change your ringtone away from “Sexy and I Know It” and your wallpaper to someone who is wearing clothes. Back at home? It’ll put things back to your personal tastes, flip off Bluetooth, slow down the processor (to save battery), and up the ringer volume in case the handset slips into the couch. There are third party apps that do similar things, but Motorola’s offering is surprisingly intuitive and seemingly well built.
• Slim. Incredibly slim. Even with the chunk of ugly at the top (where the radio/camera are stored), this thing is razor (HAH!) thin.
• Though I wasn’t able to get sample shots of the device, I did use the camera. The shutter lag was minimal, and the time between photos was trivial.
• My favorite part of the entire device? Oddly, the back. So many manufacturers (I’m looking at you, Samsung), have come to focus all of their efforts on the front of the device. What about the part the world sees while I’m actually using the phone as.. you know, a phone? The Droid RAZR’s back surface is almost entirely Kevlar, which feels remarkably nice in the hand. It’s the texture of soft-touch paint, without the added thickness.
• The battery isn’t swappable — which is sort of weird, for an Android device. They sacrificed that option to make the device slimmer.

That’s all for now — but feel free to ask any questions down in the comments below. We’ll try to get our hands on a production device to give this thing a proper review in the coming weeks.

We’ve got a nice demo video or two coming up soon — sadly, the WiFi here appears to be carrier pigeon-based. Check back soon! Update: Now with video!

Samsung and Google got some considerable mileage out of their Nexus teaser video, and Motorola apparently wants to join in on the fun. Their own mysterious video went live earlier today, and hints pretty strongly at some impressive hardware due to be unveiled soon.

As with most teaser videos, Motorola’s latest is heavy on imagery but light on detail. In between the images of fast cars and a Douglas Adams reference, Motorola alludes to something faster, thinner, stronger, and smarter ready for a debut on October 18.

On top of that, Motorola sent out press invites to that event, and Engadget discovered that Motorola’s PR team named the image “spyderlaunchinvite”. I’d say that pretty strongly hints at the existence of the Motorola Spyder, which also made the rounds with the monikers Droid HD and Droid RAZR.

What really gets me here is that there are hints that point to different names, provided you look hard enough. The teaser video quickly flashes a razor blade, which seems like a call-out to the Droid RAZR rumor. It doesn’t help that Motorola (with the help of CSC) has recently picked up a handful of RAZR-related domain names that are about seven years too late to be relevant for the original models.

Then again, the invite should theoretically be the most up to date of all the materials that have made the rounds. It seems pretty unlikely that someone tagged it with the wrong filename, unless Motorola has been sitting on the invite image for longer than we thought.

In any case, it won’t be long before we find out what Motorola is working on. If I may be so bold as to quote West Side Story, “something’s coming — I don’t know what it is but it is gonna be great.”

January 5th. That’s when Motorola and Verizon first announced the DROID Bionic.

9 months grueling months later, it’s here. It’s seen delay after delay, and revisions to both its internal specs and its outward appearance have made the Droid Bionic we see launching today about as different from what was originally announced as any other Android handset hitting the shelves this month, but still: it’s rocking the Droid Bionic name, built by Motorola for Verizon, and it’s finally, finally here.

Given its launch window and positioning at the top of Verizon’s marketing masthead, the Bionic will be amongst but a handful of handsets that’ll be regularly held up against whatever Apple might launch as the next iPhone in the coming weeks. As such, you can be damn sure we’re going to give this thing a thorough examining before we publish our full review. Look for that early next week — but in the mean time, you can find our early impressions here.

For those who might be needing a refresher on the specs:

• Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
• Dual-core 1GHz Processor
• 1 Gigabyte of DDR2 Ram (up from 512MB at the original announcement)
• 16GB of internal storage, plus a 16GB microSD card pre-installed
• 4.3″ qHD (960×540) Display
• Verizon 4G/LTE Support
• HDMI/Mirror Mode
• 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot (Up to 5 devices)
• 802.11n b/g/n
• 1735mAh battery
• Bluetooth v2.1+ EDR
• 8 megapixel rear camera
• 0.3 megapixel (VGA) front camera (Blyeck)

The DROID Bionic is available for $299 on a new 2-year contract, or $599 at full retail.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the Droid HD. The previously unseen handset was known to be floating around, thanks to its EXIF data making a quick appearance on Flickr, but the Droid HD is ready for a bit of spotlight.

The Droid Bionic has been enjoying its share of attention for months now, even as its release date keeps getting pushed further and further back. Now that we have a good handle on when we can get one, the Bionic is starting to pop up in photoshoots left and right. Engadget got their hands today on what are by far most detailed shots of the Bionic taken to date, but the Droid HD was there to steal the show.

First impressions: it’s approaching an Infuse 4G-level of thin, even with a huge battery and an 8 megapixel mounted on the rear. The device appears to be running Gingerbread (no surprise there), and it naturally packs a microUSB and Micro-HDMI port. The MicroSD card and SIM card slots are tucked away on the opposite side of the device’s svelte frame.

The device’s name and inclusion of a SIM card immediately suggest the device’s global nature, but hopefully it turns out to be one of Verizon’s SIM-toting 4G LTE devices. If that were the case, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Motorola and Verizon were to play with the branding a bit. The name “Droid HD” seems a little droll next to something with a bit of oomph like the Bionic, but looking at the form factor and its emphasis on size, the Droid HD may well be the successsor to the Droid X2.

Any word on release dates would be pure speculation at this point, but the unit looks surprisingly complete for something that hasn’t been officially announced. It could be Motorola’s next big GSM phone, or Verizon could be working on their holiday blitz strategy, but until more news surfaces, Droid fanatics will just have to settle for more eye-candy.

Motorola Mobility just released its Q2 earnings and it’s loaded with fun stats. First off, the company posted $3.3 billion in net revenue with non-GAAP earnings of nine cents a share. That’s up 28% over last year’s second quarter and beats the Wall Street’s estimate of just six cents a share. The company also realized a GAAP net loss of $56 million compared to a net earnings of $80 million in 2010.

Over that time period Motorola Mobility managed to ship 11 million devices including 4.4 million smartphones and 440,000 Xoom Android tablets. That’s up from 8.3 total devices last year . Part of this growth came from the Latin America and China markets where revenue grew 40% and sales more than doubled from the previous year. Note, the company reported shipments rather than sales to consumers.

Sanjay Jha, chairman and CEO of Motorola Mobility, stated regarding growth “With a focus on profitable growth and delivering differentiated LTE smartphones and tablets, we expect to achieve profitability in Mobile Devices in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2011.”

The company’s wireless division’s net revenue’s grew a whooping 41% over last year to $2.4 billion, partially lead by the Droid product family and International expansion. Motorola made a big push with Sprint during Q2 and announced plans to launch 10 devices on the carrier including the carrier’s first international phone and a new iDEN Android smartphone.

The company also credits part of the growth from new home entertainment devices such as Motorola Televation IPTV and Medios Xperience. That sector of the company grew 2% over last year and end with net revenues at $907 million.

This report also clears the air concerning the much debated Motorola Xoom. Analysts couldn’t agree on a shipment estimate and most simply stated they were disappointing. Motorola is now saying it shipped (read: shipped, not sold) 440k Xooms during the second quarter. Apple previously stated that they sold 4.69 million iPads during the same time period, outselling the original Honeycomb tablet by at least a factor of ten.

Moving to Q3 Motorola Mobility is predicting a non-GAAP earnings of zero to ten cents a share with Wall Street expecting the company to report a 24 cents a share profit on $3.37 billion in revenue. Then for Q4 Motorola Mobility is expecting 47 cents a share on a revenue of $3.84 billion. The market didn’t like what it saw and Motorola Mobility took a hit in after hours trading.

The Motorola Droid 3 just hit the shelves four days ago, but that didn’t stop the guys from iFixIt from doing what they do best: tearing out its inner bits and splaying them out for all to ogle.

Most gadget teardowns come with a surprise or two — an unused FM radio here, or an extra bit of untapped processor speed there. Alas, the Droid 3 is about as unsurprising as they come; outside of the addition of a SIM card slot (as the Droid 3 is a world phone) and keyboard keys that are said to “feel cheaper”, this thing’s insides are put together just like the Droid 1 and 2.

Check out a few highlights from the teardown in our gallery below, or check out the full teardown right over here.

Between 2001 and 2007, phone manufacturers had a problem. They had very few options when it came to operating systems and Windows Mobile and Symbian were in the catbird seat when it came to popular smartphones. Palm OS was still kicking during that period but if you wanted “smartphone” or, more precisely, “PDA phone” features you went with one of those two platforms.

Unbeknownst to many, however, was a small, strange group of users who used Linux on their PDAs and phones on a daily basis. I remember, for example, plopping Qt on my Compaq Ipaq 3650 back in 2002 and Rockbox on my Archos Jukebox (and my original iPod). These were homegrown projects created by enthusiasts inside and outside of the high tech industry to took the mission and modus of GNU hackers to new platforms. The resulting products, while acceptable, were far from mainstream.

The OHA saw what was possible – many participants were intimately familiar with platform hacking – and they were surprisingly prescient. The OHA members formed their alliance on November 7, 2007 at MWC and during this period many of the major players were seeing sales of their “feature” phones shrink quite drastically as users began to understand and use the mobile web and request more PDA-like features and, propelled by the rise of RIM, always-on email. Witness devices like the Samsung Blackjack to see where that led – odd amalgam phones that sold for a few hundred dollars, some aimed squarely at the “mom on the go” market (a marketer’s description, not mine) that once accepted the flip phone as a height of technology. In short, people who weren’t normally looking at smartphones were starting to request them and, to the carriers’ credit, they got them in the form of highly polished and marketed “blockbuster” releases like the Droid and the ill-fated Xoom.

The OHA, then, was supposed to give carriers the opportunity to create handsets outside of the status quo. By creating and sharing an “open” OS, they could save money, pump out customized phones with PDA features for underserved markets, and control almost everything about the UI, the installed apps, and offer the geeks some of the things they wanted like a command line and SSH sessions. It’s easy to forget that it was the geeks, not the non-techies, that loved the OHA simply because it combined Linux and cellphones.

Fast forward to today. The OHA has been all but forgotten and when you think Android you think Google. This would be akin to someone like Yahoo! taking over development of Linux and telling Linus Torvalds to stuff it. Google calls the shots, runs the patch process, and handles support. The handset manufacturers wouldn’t want it any other way. After all, who wants a wonky version of Android on a mass-market phone? Not any sane person.

So this is open on Google’s terms. As Andy Rubin wrote:

As always, device makers are free to modify Android to customize any range of features for Android devices. This enables device makers to support the unique and differentiating functionality of their products. If someone wishes to market a device as Android-compatible or include Google applications on the device, we do require the device to conform with some basic compatibility requirements.

That sure sounds like the old Henry Ford line: “You can have any color you want as long as it’s black” and it sounds very similar to what any sane mobile OS maker would say: “You are free to develop and use this stuff all you want, but if you think you’re going to make any money you’d best get with the program.”

To be completely fair there is a vibrant Android development community but their efforts are often met with bit-checking and firmware reversals when “hackers” try to install their own versions of Android. If Android was “big O” Open, as prosthelytized by Richard Stallman, none of this would be an issue. But no carrier wants a rogue phone on their network and Android, like the island in The Prisoner, is fun and cool but you’re not leaving Google’s cage without a fight.

Arguing Android’s openness is like arguing when Nirvana “sold out.” For those who thought they were cool back in the 1980s, doing videos on MTV and hijacking youth culture is pretty egregious. And for those used to downloading a tarball of community code, compiling it, and slapping it on a bare metal system, the OHA sold out when they called for open and really gave us “free.”

Update: Scott here, adding a little more about the value of open. I think a lot of people — and business executives — build up a lot of angst about the “threats” that openness presents to a company’s success, and their bottom line in particular. After all, if Joe Hacker can take all your work and rebrand it and release it himself, what’s stopping him from stealing all or even just some of your marketshare?

But there’s a compelling counterargument to this. Just look at Red Hat. They pay people to contribute to free software that gets used in lots of non-Red Hat releases. There’s even a whole distribution that literally copies all of Red Hat’s work and is available for free. And yet, businesses continue to purchase Red Hat software, which ain’t cheap.

I’m a big believer in the Four Freedoms, especially Freedom Zero, as advocated by the Free Software Foundation. Red Hat, and other open source companies, prove that it’s possible to succeed in business and still honor the four freedoms to your customers. The mobile space needn’t be any different.

Think of this action by Google as akin to training one athlete in a race to an Olympic level and then pitting her against amateurs. The amateurs could still win, but it’s going to be tough.

Confirming what we’ve heard, Mobile-Review notes:

Producers wishing to make tablets for Android 3.0 sign a separate license agreement with Google. It also contains a number of very interesting points. In particular, the producer who created a device in OS version 2.x, cannot update it to 3.0. It is possible that this was the reason that the HTC Flyer in most versions will be released immediately with the third version of the OS.

This is also the reason many found the Xoom to be an oddly incomplete device: it was essentially a beta release waiting for its gold master to come.

What will happen to the tablet landscape when LG releases a Nexus device? Not much. However, the LG Nexus tablet will be the baseline device against which all other Android tablets will compete and even if you don’t buy it, manufacturers will understand that its in their best interests to copy it. Because Google offers its software help and expertise in these cases, the LG Nexus device will be “pure” Honeycomb while everyone else will be mucking about with whatever Google deigns to release to them over the next few months.

Google performs this bear hug for a few extremely good reasons. First, it ensures that the manufacturer doesn’t release sub par product and it acts as a training session for the company’s internal staff. It also ensures that it has a device or two that it can point to and say “Develop for that. That’s what we’re all using.” This hug is a detriment to other manufacturers, to be sure, who fumble along with random Honeycomb releases while one company becomes the beneficiary of Google’s largesse. But them’s the breaks, as Queen Elizabeth II of England would say.

Maybe you heard, Verizon finally has the iPhone. Or it will, in a few weeks. And you know what that means: it’s time to advertise the hell out of that bad boy. But don’t be surprised if it’s Verizon doing more of the pushing than Apple.

Reports today have Verizon putting their significant “marketing muscle” behind the device in the coming weeks. This should be no surprise given what they’ve done for the iPad — a device which doesn’t really even directly connect to their network (though that will change). It’s also in line with what we’ve been hearing for month: that Verizon was getting ready for a huge push in Q1 around some new mobile product. The assumption has long been that this would be the iPhone.

And then there’s what Verizon did for Motorola’s Droid products. Thanks largely to a massive multi-million dollar ad push, Verizon was able to make the Droid the flagship Android device — and that’s despite Google releasing their own Nexus models. And interestingly enough, many of the “Droid Does” commercials took indirect shots at Apple and the iPhone. So these new Verizon ads for the iPhone could seem a little awkward at first.

One question will be if Verizon starts putting more marketing dollars behind iPhone ads then Droid ads? It would seem that wouldn’t be in Verizon’s best interest since the Android platform still gives them much more power over their destiny as a money-grabbing carrier. The iPhone, on the other hand, seems determined to turn Verizon into another dumb pipe, like it more or less has done with AT&T.

You’ll notice that in Apple’s current iPhone ads, AT&T is usually only mentioned at the very end with their logo appearing. Sometimes they tout functionality that Verizon can’t match, like talk & surf, but they don’t credit AT&T with that (and even that functionality gap may close soon). It seems likely that any Verizon iPhone ads that Apple does will be largely the same. The focus will be on the iPhone, not Verizon. After all, just as with the logistics of the press conference itself, Apple can’t afford to piss off AT&T, which is still a valuable iPhone partner.

It will be interesting to see if Verizon though directly takes on the AT&T iPhone. You can just imagine them mocking the AT&T iPhone’s inability to make a call. But I can’t imagine Apple being okay with such a plan for the same reason as above. They don’t care who sells more iPhones, as long as it sells. Instead, maybe Verizon would just tout their great coverage and service record in such ads without mentioning AT&T.

AT&T too has long taken shots at Verizon with their ads. Will they also play nice with new iPhone ones? Again, probably. Apple is in the driver’s seat here. If the children are bickering, they’ll shut them up.

But I think it’s safe to say that the “Droid Does” ads as they’ve been currently constructed are over. In other words, “Droid Did”.

Still rockin’ the original Droid? Sick and tired of Android 2.2 (which, by the way, most Android handsets still don’t have)? I know, I know — all the cool kids (read: Nexus One owners) are on Android 2.2.1.

Don’t sweat it, Droid owners — you can get all up in that marginally improved goodness. It just requires a bit of hacking.

The gents over at MyDroidWorld have gotten their self-proclaimed “grubby little hands” on a build of Android 2.2.1 built for the original Droid, and have opted to share it with all. The nice folks that they are, they went ahead and rooted it for you right off the bat. Find the download right over here.

So what’s new? Erm, good question. Bug fixes? Probably. Speed improvements? Perhaps. An additional number at the end of the version number, thereby making your handset inherently cooler than everyone else’s? Absolutely!

Today’s all about Windows Phone 7 (for better or worse). Microsoft is in New York showing off the goods, and Greg and John are there getting the goods. What I can say remotely is this: Microsoft is launching Windows Phone 7 across 30 countries, with one or two phones per country. Those of us in the U.S. are looking at an early November release date.

My first thought was: how typically Microsoft. How many phones does Apple make? One. How many Android phones are truly over with the average Joe? One. Matt made this same point nearly two years ago: simplicity is golden when it comes to product lineups.

And yet, here comes Microsoft with 10 phones in its satchel. Ten! Kinda dilutes the specialness, no?

Not to say that the first phones are “bad” or anything like that. Granted, Greg and John will have the hands-on, but the various specs don’t look too bad, and some of them actually look (that is, aesthetically) pretty decent.

This is how Microsoft describes Windows Phone 7:

The goal for Microsoft’s latest smartphone is an ambitious one: to deliver a phone that truly integrates the things people really want to do, puts those things right in front of them, and either lets them get finished quickly or immerses them in the experience they were seeking.

And that sounds great… if you didn’t already have a phone that does all that. I don’t hear too many people complaining that the iPhone or Android-based whatever doesn’t do what you really want they really want them to do. Can they make phone calls? Check. Text? Check. Browse the Web? Check. Run silly Apps? Check.

Make of that what you will.

Here we go again.

It seems like a week can’t go by now without some company suing another company over some lame software patent. The latest is Microsoft which today announced it was suing Motorola for features on their Android phones.

As it continues to rapidly grow in size, Android is increasingly a target of such suits. But the weird thing about these suits is how they always seem to be indirectly targeting Android. That is, companies aren’t suing Google for Android, they’re suing manufacturers using Android on their phones. See: Apple suing HTC for another example of this.

So what does Microsoft think is being infringed upon here? Here’s the key blurb from Microsoft PR:

Microsoft filed an action today in the International Trade Commission and in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington against Motorola, Inc. for infringement of nine Microsoft patents by Motorola’s Android-based smartphones. The patents at issue relate to a range of functionality embodied in Motorola’s Android smartphone devices that are essential to the smartphone user experience, including synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power.

So basically it sounds like Microsoft is upset about the customizations Motorola has been making for its popular Droid brand of Android phones.

But the details are the best part. Microsoft is suing Motorola over battery power and signal strength notifications. Oh, and email syncing. Yeah, this is getting out of control.

In a blog post on the matter, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Horacio Gutierrez, even cites the similar lawsuits by Apple and Oracle as validation of their own. Ugh.

Update: In the comments, Seth Weintraub brings up a great point:

Microsoft is obviously pissed that Motorola is ‘all in’ on Android. Otherwise, why would they back UP HTC in their case, yet sue Motorola.

Back in April, Microsoft struck a patent deal with HTC — undoubtedly over much of this stuff. HTC is helping out with Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 7, Motorola is not right now.

[via Phandroid]

You’ll forgive me, but I have to say it: what a load of crap.

In theory, I’m right there with you. The thought of a truly open mobile operating system is very appealing. The problem is that in practice, that’s just simply not the reality of the situation. Maybe if Google had their way, the system would be truly open. But they don’t. Sadly, they have to deal with a very big roadblock: the carriers.

The result of this unfortunate situation is that the so-called open system is quickly revealing itself to be anything but. Further, we’re starting to see that in some cases the carriers may actually be able to exploit this “openness” to create a closed system that may leave you crying for Apple’s closed system — at least theirs looks good and behaves as expected.

Case in point: the last couple of Android phones I’ve gotten as demo units from Google: the EVO 4G and the Droid 2, have been loaded up with crapware installed by the carriers (Sprint and Verizon, respectively). Apple would never let this fly on the iPhone, but the openness of Android means Google has basically no say in the matter. Consumers will get the crapware and they’ll like it. Not only that, plenty of this junk can’t even be uninstalled. How’s that for “open”?

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Earlier this year, Verizon rolled out its own V Cast app store on some BlackBerry devices. This occurred despite the fact that BlackBerry devices have their own app store (App World). From what we’re hearing, Verizon is also planning to launch this store on their Android phones as well in the future. Obviously, this store would be pre-installed, and it would likely be more prominently displayed than Android’s own Market for apps.

Does V Cast have some good content? Probably. But most of it is undoubtedly crap that Verizon is trying to sell you for a high fee. But who cares whether it’s great or it’s crap — isn’t the point of “open” supposed to be that the consumer can choose what they want on their own devices? Instead, open is proving to mean that the carriers can choose what they want to do with Android.

It’s too bad, but there is now a very real risk that the carriers are going to exploit the open system Google set up in order to create a new version of the bullshit proprietary ecosystems that they had before the iPhone came along and turned the market on its side.

And it’s not just Verizon, it’s all the carriers. One of the great features of Android is that you can install apps without going through an app store, right? Well, not if you have an a Motorola Backflip or a HTC Aria running on AT&T — they’ve locked this feature down. How? Thanks to the open Android OS.

Oh, and how about tethering? It’s one of the truly great features of Android 2.2, right? Well, not if you have a carrier that doesn’t want to support it. Google has to defer to them to enable their own native OS feature. It’s such an awesome feature — in the hands of Google. Once the carriers get their hands on it — not so much.

Speaking of Android 2.2, you know it’s out there right? You’ll be forgiven if you don’t because a whopping 4.5 percent of you Android users are currently running it, according to Google’s dashboard. And again, that’s not Google’s fault, that’s all the carriers. Incredibly, over 35 percent of you still aren’t even running any version of Android 2.x. It’s pathetic.

Apple gets crap for not supporting phones that are three years old with OS updates — the open Android system can’t even upgrade phones that are only a few months old in some cases — again, all thanks to the carriers.

The excuses for why this is run rampant. They need to tweak their custom skins, they need to test the new software, etc. It’s all a bunch of garbage. This is an open platform and yet you’re more restricted than on Apple’s supposedly closed one.

What happens when Verizon won’t update your phone to the latest greatest Android software — not because they can’t, but because they want you to upgrade to a new piece of hardware and sign the new two-year agreement that comes along with it? The game remains the same.

My point is not to bash Google — what they’ve created is an excellent mobile operating system. My point is that the same “openness” that Android users are touting as a key selling point of the OS could very well end up being its weak point. If you don’t think Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint are going to try to commandeer the OS in an attempt to return to their glory days where we were all slaves to their towers, you’re being naive.

“Open” is great until you have to define it or defend it. I’m not sure Google can continue to do either in this situation.

And before all of you pros storm the comments with how great it is to root your Android phones, consider the average consumers here. They are the ones being screwed by this exploitation of “open.” Anyone with the desire to do so can fairly easily hack an iPhone too. Open is not a reason to choose Android + carrier vs. iPhone + AT&T.

Update: Oh, and one more great example Michael Prassel reminded me of in the comments — do you want Skype on your Android phone? Well, I hope you have Verizon because otherwise you won’t be able to install it. “Open.” We’re only going to see more of this, not less.

[image: flickr/The G-tastic 7]