If you watch any television at all and you live in the US (not sure what other countries are airing this), there’s a good chance you’ve seen this commercial for the “next iPhone killer”. I mean, sure, it does have a catching tune by MoZella and the message does make you think about some iPhone annoyances but is the Verizon Motorola Droid really going to take the wireless industry by storm when it’s released on November 6, 2009?

In case you missed them all, the messages flashed across your screen during the commercial were:

iDon’t have a real keyboard.

iDon’t run simultaneous apps.

iDon’t take 5-megapixel pictures.

iDon’t customize.

iDon’t run widgets.

iDon’t allow open development.

iDon’t take pictures in the dark.

iDon’t have interchangeable batteries.

Didn’t we just get similar arguments from the Palm Pre as recently as June? Even with all the glorious third party reviews and tons of press, the Pre hasn’t quite carved the footprint that Palm wanted. Will the Verizon Motorola Droid suffer the same fate?

I think so. There are already a bunch of smartphones that already do many of the things that iDon’t. Maybe not all of them in a single unit but the none of those features that the Droid has is necessarily ground-breaking. The most appealing of the list is open development.

I admit that I do have an iPhone and the flurry of apps have made my oldest child much more developmentally advanced than the average two-year old, especially in vocabulary and motor skills. I guess that’s where I believe iPhone competitors miss the mark. Despite the growing number of Apple-haters, the iPhone has a “cool factor” that the competition just can’t touch. It took Apple several decades to build their brand. It is neither created by “the Man” nor marketed intensely as “the business phone”. Apple is one of the companies that made it chic to be geek.

As a result, a good number of the brightest, savviest, problem solvers are developing apps for the iPhone, not these other phones. Without excellent third party app support, the Droid will be more like a Blackberry clone: a great smartphone with many amazing features but will be limited by the lack of apps.

Verdict: flavor of the month

The Droid looks like a great smartphone, rich with innovative features that are executed elegantly. I would love a thin, slide-out keyboard but not at the expense of slicing off my app possibilities (85,000 and counting?). Sorry, Verizon and Motorola, you two telecom giants aren’t going to take down the smartphone giant. You’re going to end up taking a slices of the RIM and Palm market but probably not any of the Apple core. And don’t get me wrong; I welcome the competition. It’ll only make the next generation of iPhones better. icon wink Verizon Motorola Droid: legit iPhone killer or just the flavor of the month?

Oh, and did you know that if you wanted to write posts, upload photos, edit pages, and manage comments on your WordPress blog from your iPhone, there’s an app for that?

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