Verizon's Droid is a series, not just a phone; Droid Eris coming from HTC
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Oct 23rd 2009 7:41PM
posted Oct 23rd 2009 7:41PM
- Droid is the brand name being applied to Verizon's Android devices. It isn't a single phone.
- The Sholes -- the phone we've been calling the Droid so far -- may simply be known as the Droid.
- HTC's Desire will be coming to market as the "Droid Eris." (Allow us to save you the Wikipedia lookup -- Eris is the Greek goddess of strife.) Interestingly, it's already up on gdgt as such.
- Droid Eris will be released -- not announced, actually released -- on November 6. In all likelihood, it will not be announced or shown at Verizon's October 28 event -- that will probably just be for the Sholes.
Looking forward to them!
Mmmm Sense UI and Multitasking...AND you can make a call to top it all off!! iphone who? 70,000 apps wha?
all my years of using a razr are finally going to pay off ... i've got every rebate possible for this phone.
@d889
I'm sorry you waited so long for nothing. Verizon just cut their rebate/credit program in half earlier this year. My 2 year phone credit dropped from 100 to 50.
Nope, if you had the 100.00 NE2 discount and never used it, you still have it. After you use it, you will get 50.00 the next time you upgrade. :)
droids...
c3p0 - gold and message-centric
r2d2 - small and quirky
among countless others from the EU that would be too nerdy to put into this thread.
this must be the new voyager, or verizons 5th iphone killer
i actually just heard from a buddy who works at a verizon store that the phone will come without any software, and you have to download applications for voicemail (probably visual) and the browser separate.... idk what this means but there might be a catch to this phone somewhere down the line....
regardless of if this is true or not i am looking forward to the release to see just what verizon has up their sleeve.
Your buddy is full of crap.
Yeah! Finally a sexy looking android phone!
I reeeally want to try this out.
Whoa...
Gack!
Goddess of strife...is that a good thing?
Haha, that's exactly what I wondered... and clearly the answer would be NO! :)
Looks like Verizon is finally getting it's shit together with their smart phone lineup.
cant disagree........
upranked.
If you can sell me a Droid or a Sholes or a Tao or whatever the fuck you wanna call it for $200 up front (no rebates) on a two year contract, you can consider me officially sticking with the Verizon family. Though then again, if you can show me a Calgary that's $150 and more to my casual, college bound liking, I might just by that instead, lol.
If you purchase the phone online you get an instant rebate and free overnight shipping.
who the heck are you?
and if they don't meet your demands,what? you walk away?
go ahead, leave. trust me, verizon will not miss you!
Luckily I migrated to the Eris-free network.
Thats exactly why I own a thinkpad. Just cant give up the red titty of doom.
HTC Eris...
For those of you who prefer your DROID with a little less (read: no) keyboard. ;-)
Go DROID!
@ oversight68 Rammstein?
No. "Eris" is the last four letters of "Desire" backwards. *rolls eyes*
So what happened to Ed?
@Why should I have all the fun?
The bitch kicked him out.
They wouldn't want J.K. Rowling to sue. (Mirror of Erised in the Harry Potter books - so, so very old)
If they call their line-up Droid and also have a singular phone named Droid, there's going to be mass confusion... in fact...
Gonads and striiiiiife!
I agree. Makes no sense.
Eris > Pluto
I FOR ONE WELCOME OUR VERIZON DROID OVERLORDS...
HVGA? No thanks. WVGA, please. And 24-bit.
one way or another, the android juggernaut isn't slowing, it's rise is unrivalled. iphone OS is so 2007, been there, done that, move on and just die already and embrace Android/Maemo.
I doubt any single Android device is going to outsell iPhone, but the things is they all collectively run the same OS. The same one that's available on Sprint, T-Mobile, and now Verizon. AT&T is also rumored to get Android phones soon. Verizon alone is 300% bigger than T-Mobile, and Sprint is 50% bigger than T-Mobile. Not to mention all the worldwide carriers getting more Android phones. I find it hard to believe that Android phones collectively won't top iPhone sales. There's already 12,000+ apps one year into Android while there was only one phone available running it and it was on the smallest by far of the Big 3 networks in the US (T-Mobile). I'm with AT&T right now and have an iPhone 3G; the reason i din't upgrade to the 3GS is because I didn't want to look my self out of a new Android phone on AT&T. I just can't take Apple deciding to reject apps because they think it might confuse me (Google Latitude), and because they duplicate functionality (Wouldn't that be like MS blocking alternative browsers because they duplicate functionality; I can't even imagine that happening, but Apple does it in their App store). I need things that iPhone does't provide. I 'd like the ability to listen to Pandora while doing something else. I want apps that get approved in minutes and hours not days and weeks. I wan't my UStream app to be able to stream while I'm not connected to Wi-Fi. I want to be able to download directly from the web when I need to. I'd like the option to change up my homescreen a bit, change the wallpaper, the layout, add widgets. I want to be able to visit flash sites, and view flash videos on my phone. I might consider moving to Verizon, but AT&T has always had great coverage in Houston (Probably because they're based here in Texas).
Nice phones. About time Verizon got some nice ones. I still don't buy all the iPhone-killer hype. I switched from Verizon to AT&T and honestly I haven't looked back. And... surprise: I even get great service from AT&T.
It's not like Verizon ever uses the words "iPhone killer". In fact, that hype always comes from the blogosphere. If they would just review phones for what they are instead of hyping them to the max and being disappointed it doesn't include X feature, the world would be a much better place.
You must have missed those commercials...
The iPhone killer claims another victim. That story, news and weather at 10:00.
Will the Verizon Eris/Hero be running Sense or stock Android? I'm guessing Sense but just want to make sure. One more question, will this ship with 1.5 or 1.6?
I think that's actually a good question. Remember all that stuff about how Verizon wanted to have all their phones have their own Verizon-branded store on them? Which might be an issue in the future if the Pre or iPhone ever comes to Verizon? I'd be a little worried that Verizon is going to tweak these in their usual way and make them kind of *not* Android, but Droid phones. Which all run the apps from the Verizon Droid store. But don't have the Android store on them at all, and might or might not run Android apps. There might not even be Google branding on the things.
Not a given of course, but with this stuff about sub-branding you might want to worry about it a little. Personally I think it would be better for everybody/competition too if all the Android devices were largely compatible with each other and not all carrier branded like some other OS's I can think of...
As opposed to taking the word PHONE and throwing a cliched i in front of it?
If it had been called the ePhone would you feel differently?
Does anyone know what phone is actually pictured in this article? It isn't the Hero/Desire/Eris or the Moto Droid. So, which one is it? Because I want that one.
that's the Eris
LETS GO BIG RED!!!! I mean VZW and IU's supercomputer if you were wondering...
@TheGM
Have you tried accessing AT&T's network at the Dryden/TMC station on the Metro Light Rail? It completely goes to s*** there. In fact, AT&T in the entire Texas Medical Center completely goes to s***.
I'm so sick of T-Mo taking a back seat to everyone. I mean, seriously, why am I waiting a full YEAR to get a decent phone?
And the "year" I'm referring to is the time period that commenced when I started looking to buy
Don't like the myTouch? The few times I've used one I've really enjoyed it.
MyTouch sucks donkey balls. the OS is OK, but the hardware is cheap as hell. The whole thing is so Fisher Price, plasticy feeling. The screen doesnt respond well either cause they used cheap plastic on it too. All the best phones have glass screens. The Hero has it, iPhone has it, etc.
T-Mobile needs to stop settling for these cheap ass phones & get some premiere stuff. And their data network is a joke.
-A 4 year T-Mobile customer who switched to Sprint & then kicked his own ass for not doing it sooner.
When I saw the commercial for the Droid, I really thought that Verizon had a real iPhone killer. I guess not.
Is it just me or does it look like the top half of an HTC Touch Pro 2 and the bottom half of an HTC Dream. It looks like some phone unicorn.
I meant centaur. Engadget, I want an edit button!
On another note, maybe I shouldn't drink and comment >.>
If you had to choose one, I'd keep drinking. ;)
Agree about the Edit button BTW ad the observation about the phone... looks rather hideous right now... maybe it'll grow on me.
You confused a unicorn with centaur?
Nerd faux pas!
@Why should I have fun?
Trust me, I am ashamed. But in a way to redeem myself a buddy and I were talking about Neil Patrick Harris and I couldn't get unicorns off the brain.
"...a buddy and I were talking about Neil Patrick Harris and I couldn't get unicorns off the brain."
Tell me you were playing either D&D or World of Warcraft at the time, and you just scored the ever elusive "Nerd Trifecta" my friend.
Dungeons and Dragons! I wish! Nah, waiting for the wife to come home because her brokerage firm started a major upgrade and she's doing overtime, so I was just talking over the phone with some buddies.
I'm a nerd, it's Engadget, it attracts us like flies to honey!
But sigh, I do wish I could play Dungeons and Dragons. Now I'm all depressed!
*Rolls a dice to see if he gets drunk*
Natural 20 =D
@ oversight68 Rammstein?
Good point – if it was called ePhone I would still conclude it's just more fodder for Engadget, nothing more.
condemned to eternal grayness, if I scroll real fast I can't even see you
If they were talking on their iPhones, it would be more like
""Hey honey, let's switch to Verizon and ...... *Signal Lost*
@vitaliy Huh?
This is actually a brilliant strategy. Creating a whole line of Android devices, but separate yourself from the rest by calling your line of phones, Droid.
i grudgingly half agree. i'm a happy owner of a htc magic (on UK's vodafone) but why is it known as a MyTouch 3G in the states and probably as 50 other names elsewhere...? pick a name and an international marketing strategy, guys. the film industry figured it out. you open worldwide at the same time and all the marketing money works twice as well. let all this US marketing (which i'm reading) promote the UK Sholes launch.
"The Sholes -- the phone we've been calling the Droid so far -- may simply be known as the Droid."
The fnord name of the fnord phone is the Droid Fnord. Can't you fnord see the Fnord at the end of the name?
I think you fnord in your pituitary gland.
HAHAHA!!! and let me guess, you are one of those tards that go out and spend $$$ everything they have released a new iphone. Well, then I'm 100% sure when the next iphone comes with flash in the camera you will still buy it again!!!
For once, seems like a decent phone!
Why couldn't they put that hideous verizon logo on the back of the phone or omit it completely?
Like the idea of an umbrella brand. Don't like the name "Droid Eris." Sounds like a disease. Consult your physician if symptoms of droideris persist.
The Droid phones look great, but I'll bet that at least half of the nitwits in these comments complaining of dropped calls on the iPhone have never actually used one. I have experienced precisely zero dropped calls on mine in a year and a half.
Everyone I know on AT&T (iPhone or not) complains about dropped calls all the time.
Everyone I know on Verizon (regardless of phone) enjoys good service.
Of course, I'm not trying to say you're wrong. Your area may have amazing AT&T coverage while mine doesn't. This sort of thing depends on where you use your phone, so when others say their iPhone drops calls, they could be right.
(I'm in Northern California/the Bay Area, by the way.)
Oh dude, ATT sucked today. I drove through 5 cities here in Los Angeles. I was dropped all day on my iPhone. I was talking with a buddy who's on his iPhone from San Francisco and we kept saying "sorry, its my dumb phone" ..... "no, i think it was mine".
I guess it is the network.
IF you're not lying ButcherChop (that story sounds a tad convenient to me), I'm not saying AT&T doesn't have its weak areas, same as Verizon does. Perhaps it's the west coast? I live in the northeast and have never, ever had issues like that. I also know nearly a dozen other people who are on AT&T, and don't experience those issues when talking to them, either. And weak areas or no, it doesn't alter my conviction that some portion of these comments are being made by parrots who have never owned the phone.
Nice name Eris. I would have saved that for a prettier phone. For some reason, the bottom of the phone looks ugly. And that goes for android phone htc released.
Ok, sounds great. I was all about the Droid until I saw the gold trim and the confirmed physical keyboard. Now, HTC, just make sure this Eris has the same process as the Droid and is running 2.0, and we've got a deal.
If the Eris is going to be actually released on November 6, and it doesn't seem like Verizon would want to interfere with the much-hyped Droid (Sholes) launch which is also supposed to be in November based on the PR, do we think the Sholes is going to be a November 1st launch? Only a couple days after the announcement on the 28th, but midnight on Halloween does seem like an appropriate time with the scary red eye and all. Maybe we can line up at Verizon stores in costume! What a trick-or-treat!
its a freaking touchscreen you cant do much with a phone to be designed as a touchscreen without a qwerty its a rectangle with a screen god why doesnt apple just copy right the use of the shape rectangle in all electronic devices cause every1 is stealing their brand new, never used ideas
(end rant and sarcasm)
And Lucas Film Ltd starts making more cash.
Something isn't jiving with the HTC phone BGR posted last night and with this HTC that Engadget is posting here. Check out the Verizon markings. One phone has it centered and the other has it on the right hand side. Also, its tough to tell on one picture because of the darkness but one phones screen appears to be bigger.
Eris is specifically the Greek god of Chaos... not necessarily strife, although strife can be bundled up with the Chaos part.
Well people didn't honestly think one phone could seriously take on the iPhone did they?? of course they're gonna need a clone army, your trying to dethrone the KING. Unfortunately for the Droids the extend of their sales will be limited to the anti iPhone orgy that gathers in the Engadget comment section because they're the only ones who seem to have any deSIRE to have them.
You picked the right name, because you definitely are.
Is it just me or does anyone think that this version is looking a little to much like the iphone?!!? I liked the version that was shown when google/verizon announced that android would come to verizon better. I dont think this look will sit to well with all of the iphone fans ^_^ I am hoping that this version is not the one verizon will use. I want to own the verizon htc android but this just isnt the look I was going for.. I hope this is not the final version
@ iphone
What you don't understand is that not everyone wants an I-Phone it is an choice. Many people may have tried an i-phone and didn't like it (Me Included). How can it even be called an 3g phone when i'm constantly on EDGE and dropping call's.
I wonder what Verizon's WinMo strategy will be...
Verizon will figurethatout after Microsoft figures out theirs
so just letting you know, i DOUBT this is the case.
if Droid is going to be the overarching sub brand here....why would they have the ads say stuff like "iDont have a physical keyboard". The Eris doesnt have one.
Verizon will be having an ANDROID lineup section now, along with a Blackberry and WinMo section. The Moto Droid, HTC Eris, and Moto Calgary will be the first three devices..with more to come.
I'm a VZW rep. I know these things. Usually it's PhoneArena that posts construed bullshit.
For the record, I am a Verizon customer. I had ATT when they were Cingular. I switched 10 years ago because of customer service. I know it's 10 years later and I'm sure they have improved. But here is my take. The iPhone is basically an iPod with cell service. That's fine. I have an iPod and will never fill it. I leave it in my car because it's hooked in with the USB and have no use for it in my house. So for me what's important, and because I have no land line, is I need a phone to have good call quality. But I would also like a PDA that I can truly surf the net with and good e-mail interface. So although I admit that I thought about switching to the iPhone, I stayed loyal to VZW. Their service has been good to me. Yeah, they are overpriced but you do get what you pay for. I had thought about Sprint because it's basically the same network and cheaper because everything is included. But I probably will stay with VZW and I'm happy with some new choices that will be coming our way soon. One last thing about Apple, they want you to buy their iPods/iPhone, but then if you walk in the store and ask them anything about, for example, getting music onto a new computer or something, half of the salespeople just say, I don't know anything about PC. I use Mac. You know, a lot of us use PC because we may have to. I have software that I use for work that won't run on Mac. Sorry. That's what I don't like about iPhone is Apple. I pay .99 a song but I can only use it on iPod. I can't even use them for a ringtone. Doesn't seem right to me. I paid for it.
So, yes, there will probably never be an iPhone killer because iPhone is one of a kind. It's an iPod with a phone and the only people who make iPod is Apple. However,I am sure some day every carrier will get the iPhone but it will still be and always will be an iPod with a phone and you will always have to deal with Apple. It doesn't matter who the carrier is.
This makes sense. Longtime VZW watchers had a vision problem with an open-source phone on Verizon's network-they just didn't see it happening. They really like to lock things down. So if VZW has worked with Google to create a special VZW version of Android they're branding as Droid the pieces suddenly come together. Expect Droid phones to do only what VZW wants, and knowing VZW that won't be much
The whole 'Droid" thing as a sub-brand plays right into VZW's long-term behavior. They'll offer open phones, but under their definition and playing by their rules. We'll just have to wait and see...
it look more like HTC tattoo remodeling/cosmetic look right ???.
i wonder how many more fugly phone till HTC realized that large chinned phone is so old fashioned
Eris is the goddess of chaos and discord, not so much strife. She started the Trojan War. And she's the chosen deity of Discordians everywhere. (I have MA vanity plates 'ERIS' ;-) )
Five tons of flax!
Rename the Sholes / Tao / Droid to the Eros. Fitting name, I think.
I love the name Eros (ha!), but it would be confusing considering there's a Droid Eris by HTC bound for Verizon.
I still haven't seen the product I would buy, and I don't understand why nobody makes it. It's a Droid that folds open like a netbook and has a real keyboard inside. It will stand up on its own on a desktop so you can type. It will have a mini-trackball and a port to attach a real mouse. The screen will rotate 180 degrees and fold down over the keyboard so it looks like an iPhone, and it's a touchscreen. It surfs the web, plays music, and it's a phone.
It was a genius move on Verizon's part to secure the "Droid" name/rights. It will allow them to separate themselves from the other handsets on the market/carriers.
http://www.droidforums.net