Droid Bionic Makes Intriguing Rival to iPhone 5
Motorola's Droid Bionic, perhaps the most eagerly awaited Android phone yet, has launched with a good head start against Apple's coming iPhone refresh, likely due early next month.
The Bionic was introduced at January's Consumer Electronics Association trade show, but its release was delayed from spring, prompting endless discussion on blogs about the device's ultimate specifications, which have been revised by Motorola since the unveiling.
Without knowing much about the specs of the iPhone 5, it's hard to predict how the two will match up, but the Bionic is drawing predictions of being a serious David against Apple's Goliath.
More Screen, Fast Data
The second Droid device to use Verizon Wireless's 4G LTE data network (the first was Samsung's Droid Charge), the Bionic packs a dual-core, one-gigahertz processor for fast multitasking and a larger screen size than the current iPhone, 4.3 inches. (The new iPhone is expected to have a slightly larger display than its current 3.5-inch touchscreen, perhaps 3.7 or 4 inches.)
"I have only been playing with it for a short while, but it appears that the Droid Bionic is the best LTE phone on the market today," said Avi Greengart of Current Analysis, though he added: "I will not speculate about how it stacks up against a product that has not been announced."
LTE speed will allow Bionic users to download at 5 to 12 Mbps and upload at 2 to 5 Mbps in 4G LTE mobile broadband coverage areas, Verizon promises.
One obstacle for the Bionic, however, may be its price: At $300, it's a bit steeper than the average subsidized smartphone cost of $199. However, that price is the same as the current iPhone model with 32 gigabytes of internal storage, and Motorola and Verizon Wireless seemed to want it to be on par with that iPhone model by adding a 16 gigabyte SD card to the internal 16 gigs of memory. No iPhone has included a memory card slot.
"[The Bionic] has received good reviews but the real question mark -- will anyone buy it based on the high price point of $300?" asked wireless analyst Kirk Parsons of J.D. Power and Associates. "The [Samsung] Galaxy II series has also received good reviews but its at a lower price point."
Better All the Time
"The bottom line is [smartphones] are getting better with every new generation, especially those devices on 4G -- which is still a weak spot for the iPhone," Parsons said.
Another selling point of the Droid Bionic is the range of new applications Motorola is adding to it, including Zumocast, which lets customers import videos, music, pictures and documents from their computers, and Webtop, which allows the phone to stream content to a TV, monitor or docking station.
Apple, on the other hand, has 425,000 applications in its iTunes App Store (more than Android's 300,000-plus) and innovations are expected with the launch of iOS 5.
Google also has an update of Android due this fall, internally known as Ice Cream Sandwich. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said this week that Ice Cream Sandwich, or Android 4.0, would be released in "October/November." The Bionic ships with Android 2.3.4 but will be updated.
So customers with $300 to spend on a phone are faced with a serious choice.
. "The difference to me is, folks are willing to spend that much for an iPhone. Are they willing to buy a Motorola at that price point?" Parsons said. "It will all depend on how much marketing and advertising the [respective] carriers put behind it."
In addition to its widespread ingrained pop-culture status, another advantage for the iPhone is its multicarrier availability, on AT&T and Verizon Wireless and, with the iPhone 5, reportedly soon to emerge on Sprint Nextel shelves. The Bionic is exclusively available via Verizon Wireless.
