Droid vs. iPhone

The debut of the Droid, a smartphone made by Motorola for use on Verizon’s network and powered by Google’s Android 2.0 operating system, has tech observers asking whether it will threaten Apple’s market dominance. Not since the iPhone’s 2007 launch, says Businessweek, has a new product affected the competitive landscape so dramatically. Will the Droid be an iPhone killer? (Watch a video preview of the Droid)

Actually, it’s a Palm killer: The idea that Droid can seriously undermine the Apple smartphone’s dominance is “ridiculous,” says Gizmodo’s John Herman. The iPhone “is already a superpower with massive adoption, a huge app store, and a bright future." The truly vulnerable player? Palm “should be bracing themselves for hard times.”

“How Palm lost (like Apple in the 80s)”

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Google doesn’t even want to kill the iPhone: “Repeat after me,” says MG Seigler at TechCrunch. “Android is trying to kill Windows Mobile, not the iPhone.” That’s because Google is trying to do something different: Create an operating system that works on a wide range of devices from many makers.

“The problems with iPhone killers”

It’s a killer on paper, but not in reality: The Droid has a bigger screen, a real keyboard, a removable battery, and a host of other features that suggest it could KO the iPhone, says David Coursey in PC World. But Apple has done such a good job of improving its product that its massive fan base “would rather wait to get a better version…than hassle with a new platform.”

“Why Verizon’s Droid isn’t an iPhone killer”