14 DAY TRIAL // In a somehow unsurprising move, Motorola co-Chief Executive Sanjay Jha recently stated that the handset vendor planned on launching new mobile phones in Verizon's DROID lineup, following the success its first such device (the DROID by Motorola) has seen. Two Motorola handsets were recently rumored to be on their way to Verizon, namely the Motorola Shadow and DROID 2, and Jha's sayings can be easily seen as nothing more than confirmation for the upcoming availability of these phones.
“We will introduce new Droid products in the Verizon franchise,” Jha said, speaking at an investor conference Thursday, according to a recent article on WSJ, yet he did not unveil additional details on the matter. The upcoming availability of these devices builds on the great relationship Motorola has at the moment with Verizon Wireless. The two Motorola smartphones are expected to become available in July, the news site states, adding that the mobile phone maker is set to focus greatly on Google's operating system for the time being.
While DROID by Motorola opened a new line of Android-based handsets over at Big Red, the name and marketing efforts are actually attributed to the wireless carrier. The company invested a lot in DROID's ads campaign, and also showed focus on adding more DROID handsets to the series, including the recently launched DROID Incredible. Unfortunately, this does not sound too good for Motorola, which is struggling to regain its foothold with phones based on Android, as it cannot capitalize on the DROID name.
“Never from the beginning did we assume this would be a Motorola thing,” said Lowell McAdam, chief executive of Verizon Wireless. “If [customers] think Android, that's the generic. If they think Droid, that's going to be the latest and the greatest on our network.” The upcoming devices from Motorola are expected to be high-end, yet they already face tight competition even on Verizon's airwaves, with the DROID Incredible being one of the most appealing phones the carrier ever launched.