I love how the Droid name has been reduced to nothing; Nexus replaces Droid

[Oxn]

long topic title, but true.

 

[Suntan]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the "droid" name a VZW thing?

Why would the rest fo the android world (or google themselves) care much about the Droid moniker?

-Suntan

 

[Johnly]

Nexus finally replaces the DroidHilariously funny! BAHAH. Seriously, a nexus is Google pure, a DROID is Verizon's android pure. Not sure what you mean OXN, can you elaborate some more?

 

[Cruiserdude]

I think he's just mad that the Droid Bionic will be coming with tiered data, which kinda goes against the whole "free" nature of Android, that the Droids did so much to promote. That, and the Droid X2 is a bit of a cop-out on Moto's part.

 

[fundragon]

long topic title, but true.

I thought that "Droid" simply meant they'd paid Lucas to license the name for marketing purposes... has that changed?

 

[tmacfan4321]

The Droid branding hasn't meant anything since Verizon released the Droid Incredible. It was skinned and partially locked. I don't quite know what the Droid branding is supposed to stand for anyway. There's no consistency in Verizon's naming scheme, as the Thunderbolt and the Revolution were both left out of the scheme. I originally believed that they were supposed to be high-end Android smartphones, but it's pretty much degenerated into something meaningless.

The Nexus brand is something consistent, as opposed to the Droid branding which doesn't really mean anything. There are no set criteria that a phone has to meet in order to get the Droid branding.

 

[mc21]

i was under the impression that droid just meant it was google and not bing.

 

[Cruiserdude]

Droid branding is Verizon marketing, no more, no less. Yes, George Lucas owns the copyright, Verizon pays him royalties to use it. Every phone that has the name gets the full Google experience and branding, but they only apply the name to certain devices. Mostly, it applied to devices they thought would be somewhat of a standout, they though would be a bit of a game-changer, etc. Look at the original Droid kicking off Android with style, the Incredible bringing us the 1ghz Snapdragon hardware and AMOLED screen from the Nexus1, and was one of the most powerful devices last spring. The X ushered in the idea of phones as a mini-tablet, and paired it with pretty powerful hardware for its time.

Yet the Droid name has been applied to a few flops as well. D2 and D2g were a definite step backward with their locked bootloaders, and the DX2 we all know to be a placeholder/copout until they can release the Bionic. DInc2 is a nice step up from the original, but isn't anything special these days, its pretty much a T-Bolt without LTE, so its a tad lighter and has better battery life. And let's not forget the Droid Eris, which launched alongside the original Droid. Verizon couldn't give away that restyled Hero, and remember it launched with Sense right alongside the vanilla OG Droid. It seems they'd rather you forget about it.

Originally they wanted to apply it to all high-end devices, while selling low-end and mid-range Android phones without the name. This is when Microsoft convinced them to sign an agreement to put Bing on all non Droid-branded devices, since they figured anyone who really knew or cared about having the Google experience would put up for a Droid anyway. But then more good phones kept coming, and they didn't want to crowd the offerings. That's why we had a few great devices miss out on it, especially the original Galaxy S/Fascinate, which DEFINITELY should have been a Droid, complete with support and marketing.

Not sure why the T-Bolt doesn't have Droid branding but does have the Google experience. Either the contract is expired (if so, why Bing on the Rev?) or they may simply have told Microsoft they were making an exception. The Thunderbolt certainly got a lot of marketing and support, maybe they simply didn't want to confuse the consumer by releasing an LTE device with Droid branding until they had time to market the idea of 4G LTE itself. This effectively puts the T-Bolt in the same "premiere" class as the Droid phones, whether it has the branding or not.

AFAIK, the Charge did not get Droid branding until VZW realized the Bionic would not be launching on schedule. Apparently they wanted to get a good Droid branded LTE device out soon after the T-Bolt, with a few improvements of its own. I'm guessing they chose Samsung over LG because they believed more in Samsung's ability to deliver a quality device, they figured it would be the most stable since it was based on existing hardware, and in a bit of a nod to the fact that they really screwed Sammy last fall with the Fascinate. The fact is, Galaxy S hardware still holds its own in today's market, and the Charge brings a better screen and camera than the T-Bolt, while the Rev is pretty much the same phone.

So maybe its not as revolutionary as the original Droid, but I'm still glad the Samsung got Droid branding. Its definitely the best of the currently-available LTE phones, and the most likely to be able to hold its own for awhile longer in the marketplace, considering it has a GS2 screen and camera and the Hummingbird is no slouch. Again, the original Fascinate would have been a great seller if it had proper support and marketing, and the complete Google experience. It seems VZW has finally realized that.

 

[slinky317]

The Droid branding hasn't meant anything since Verizon released the Droid Incredible. It was skinned and partially locked. I don't quite know what the Droid branding is supposed to stand for anyway. There's no consistency in Verizon's naming scheme, as the Thunderbolt and the Revolution were both left out of the scheme. I originally believed that they were supposed to be high-end Android smartphones, but it's pretty much degenerated into something meaningless.

The Nexus brand is something consistent, as opposed to the Droid branding which doesn't really mean anything. There are no set criteria that a phone has to meet in order to get the Droid branding.

The Droid Eris was skinned and it was released alongside the OG Motorola Droid. And I'm not sure what you mean by the Incredible being "partially locked" as it's a favorite among the modding community.

Verizon's spin is that only the best-of-the-best make Droid status, even though the Thunderbolt didn't for some reason. The only solid difference I can tell is that all Droids use the Google suite of apps, whereas the non-Droid Android phones might use Bing instead. It's all marketing fluff anyway, so who knows.

 

[Asterdroid]

The Droid Eris was skinned and it was released alongside the OG Motorola Droid. Not sure what you mean by "partially locked" as the Droid Incredible is a favorite among the modding community.

Verizon's spin is that only the best-of-the-best make Droid status, even though the Thunderbolt didn't for some reason. The only solid difference I ca tell is that all Droids are use the Google apps, whereas the non-Droid Android phones might use Bing instead. It's all marketing fluff anyway, so who knows.

This. It never has meant anything. It's called marketing.

My guess would be that manufacturers can pay Verizon more money if they want a device to be Droid branded, which means Verizon will spend more money marketing the device.

 

[Johnly]

That makes sense, and I agree on that front, though that name is very powerful in the consumer market and still means a Verizon android, which plenty of people still crave. It is lacking since the original and I hope a "open vanilla" droid comes again.

I think he's just mad that the Droid Bionic will be coming with tiered data, which kinda goes against the whole "free" nature of Android, that the Droids did so much to promote. That, and the Droid X2 is a bit of a cop-out on Moto's part.