The Apple
The Google
The HTC-produced Droid Incredible is a better phone than the first Droid, hands down, but its sales figures are hamstrung by the decision to use a nifty OLED screen. Those screens are in short supply and high demand, which is great news for OLED technologists, but not so good for HTC and Verizon.
That's where the Droid X comes in. Scheduled to hit store shelves on July 15, the X can do everything the Incredible does -- and more. There's a 1-gigahertz OMAP processor from Texas Instruments
According to Andy Rubin, Google VP of engineering, 160,000 Android devices are now activated every day. That's up from 100,000 a month ago, when reports surfaced that Android passed the iPhone in terms of U.S. activations. When the Droid X joins the fracas at the same $200 price point as the practically unavailable Droid Incredible and only $50 above the clearly inferior Droid, I expect those activation numbers to make another leap. And don't forget that Motorola is not the only Android partner to release products in a big way this summer: Samsung seems to have reserved some OLED screens for itself in preparation for an oncoming wave of Galaxy S phones.
Motorola has a winner on its hands here, and the glory days of RAZR dominance are coming back if Verizon markets this model as effectively as it pushed the original Droid. The iPhone 4 will outsell the Droid X in any head-to-head comparison, but it stands so alone. Today, I have to explain Android to friends and family in terms of how iPhone-like it is. In a year or two, Android will be so ubiquitous that the explanation might have to go the other way around.
Fool contributor Anders Bylund owns shares in Google, but he holds no other position in any of the companies discussed here. Microsoft is a Motley Fool Inside Value recommendation. Google is a Motley Fool Rule Breakers selection. Apple is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor pick. Motley Fool Options has recommended a diagonal call position on Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletters today, free for 30 days. You can check out Anders' holdings and a concise bio if you like, and The Motley Fool is investors writing for investors.