Is this a winner for Microsoft?  At this point, who knows?  WP7 phones won't be available until late 2010.  I believe it is not too late for Microsoft to be a viable player in the smartphone market.  Apple has yet to monopolize the market in the way that Microsoft did with desktop Windows, and it appears that Apple's competitors are finally getting organized (Android, Open Handset Alliance, Palm webOS, Flash 10.1, etc.).  With that said, I've seen this scenario before: a company demos some brilliant technology only to epically fail to market the product.

A lot can happen between now and the 2010 holiday season.  If Microsoft can execute what was demonstrated today, and Apple doesn't re-revolutionize the iPhone between then and now, Microsoft might have a chance to get back into the game.

I guess the lesson learned here is: you have to advertise your products!  Apple and Motorola/Verizon inundated television with commercials for their phones.  Google’s marketing plan so far is to have text and image ads all over the web via Google AdWords/AdSense.  Combine the lack of television advertising with the fact that you can only purchase the Nexus One through Google.com, and you have a recipe for disaster.  You can go to any Apple or AT&T store and hold an iPhone in your hands, or you can visit the Verizon store for a demo of the Droid.  Being able to actually use an expensive product before purchase means a lot.  Not to mention that stores and salespeople have a vested interest in making you buy their phone.  When Verizon or AT&T gets you in their store, they can do the hard sell, and they can up-sell you service plans and accessories.  When you go to google.com/phone, you will see an awesome demo of the Nexus One, but all you have to do is close your browser when you've had enough.

Selling consumer electronics is not like launching Google Maps.  The Nexus One can’t be in ‘beta’ for 3 years.  If Google search goes down, so what?  Users will switch over to Yahoo! or Bing.  If a user’s Nexus One locks up, they are going to want immediate customer service.  When you shell out a couple hundred bucks for a phone and it doesn’t work, you’re not going to be too pleased with searching a support forum for answers.

Unless Google finds a partner to help them sell and service the Nexus One (T-Mobile is the Nexus One network, but they don’t provide customer sales or support), the Motorola Droid will continue to be the Android top dog (until the next big think comes along in about 10 minutes ).

I have noticed that some people never negatively criticize something they have purchased, a sports team they follow, or anything on which they have spent money, time, or energy.  I assume that they subconsciously feel that their choice of purchase reflects on them to a very large degree.  Not me.  I'll tell you straight up that I purchased a Chrysler PT Cruiser in 2002, and it was the biggest piece of crap that I've ever owned, but others would never admit it.  They would defend the Cruiser and tell you how great it is despite their deep hatred for the car.    This mentality is completely foreign to me.  What's the use of being alive if you can't complain about living?!

If you are a regular reader of BackingIn, you know that I'm a Microsoft enthusiast, but don't get me started on how much I hate Microsoft Outlook.  I live for the New York Mets, but I could do a thesis on why they suck out loud.  I bought a 2009Volkswagen Rabbit, and it is a great car, but it gets horrendous gas mileage and the fit and finish are sub-par.   I own a Motorola Droid, and it is way cool, but rest assured, I will give you a true assessment of it below.

A Quick Motorola Droid Review

The Motorola Droid is an Android-based smartphone sold by Verizon Wireless.  The Droid has many features not found on the Apple iPhone, its main competitor.

• Physical keyboard
• User-replaceable battery
• SD Memory card
• Multitasking
• LED Flash for Camera
• Open application development
• Widgets
• Verizon Wireless
• Support for Adobe Flash 10.1 (to be released Q1 2010)

It is because of the above features that I chose the Droid.  Well, that and the girl who sold me the phone at the Verizon kiosk was super-cute.  After almost two months of ownership, I still love my Droid.  The phone sound quality is excellent.  I have experienced no dropped calls, and the 3G coverage is  omnipresent.  Web browsing is fast and seamless.  The onscreen keyboard is as easy to use as a touchscreen keyboard can be.  I especially like the predictive text feature.  The hardware feels solid and well built.  Battery life has been excellent so far.  There are over 20,000 apps available for the Android operating system that runs the Droid, and you can find almost everything that you want in the Android Market application store.  Almost everything.  And that brings me to the fun part.  The negatives:

• Applications.  Unlike a Windows Mobile phone, where Mobile Office is included, the Droid does not come with an application that can create or edit Office documents.  There are applications that you can purchase from the Market that will give you edit capability, but the phone should come with Office compatibility.  Also, unlike a Windows phone, the Droid does not make it easy to sync with Outlook.   You can't even access Google Docs from the Droid or any Android phone.  Google made Android!  What's up with that?
• Applications, part II.  There are thousands of Android apps for the Droid, and the fact that the iPhone has over 100 thousand apps is no big deal.  The number of apps is way less important than the availability of the apps that you want.  Most companies are not going to develop separate apps for iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre, etc.  They are going to produce an iPhone app and maybe a Blackberry version.  Hopefully this will change with Android and other smartphone operating systems pledging Flash support.
• Touchscreen feel.  The Droid has a very good touchscreen, but there is a slight delay from when you touch and drag your finger across the screen to when the interface begins to move.  It is not as smooth as the iPhone (or the Nexus One, so I'm told).
• Camera.  The camera takes way to long to focus and snap a picture.  The wait time between photos is long as well.  Photo quality is good for a cell phone, but flash photo quality if very low.
• Stability.  I have had to pull the battery out of the Droid about 4 times to fix problems.  Three times the phone was locked up, and recently, it lost all data connectivity.  Pulling the battery fixed the issues, but the lack of OS stability is troubling.  The Android 2.1 update is due for the Droid, but no date has been given.

All in all, I recommend the Motorola Droid.  Despite its shortcomings, many of which will hopefully be fixed by future software updates, it is the best smartphone on the market.  The Google Nexus One has a better screen and faster processor, but it remains to be seen if Google can service a consumer electronics product effectively.  The iPhone has the apps and the accessories, but it lacks many important features and is tied to iTunes and Apple censorship.  The Palm Pre has received glowing reviews, but will Palm survive 2010?  To paraphrase the great Obi Wan, "These are the Droids you're looking for."

Google will really blow the wind out of Motorola’s sales with the Nexus One.  The Nexus One is thinner, faster, and has a better screen than the Droid (and the iPhone!).  Nexus also has specific hardware and software features like 3D and voice to text for all input fields.  Not to mention, that when people think about the iPhone’s biggest competition from now on, it will be the Nexus One.

This always happens to me.  I purchased a 2009 Volkswagen Rabbit (AKA Golf). I really wanted a Mazda3, but Mazda was going to release a new generation Mazda3 in 2010, and I didn’t what to have an ‘old’ car after just a year.  I read on car blogs that Volkswagen takes a long time between introducing new models, and the next Rabbit wasn’t due for at least a couple of years.  I even asked the dealer (after I bought the car), and he said we wouldn’t see the next generation Rabbit for a few years.  Eight months after I purchased the Rabbit, VW introduced the next generation 2010 Golf (they  dropped the Rabbit name and went back to Golf).  It isn’t so bad.  The new version looks pretty much like mine, but it gets better mileage, and the interior noise has been reduced.

I’m not buying a new car, but maybe I can upgrade somehow to the Verizon version of the Nexus One that’s due in the Spring.  I could just learn to live with it and enjoy what I have…naaaaah!  That’s not going to happen.

I have a love/hate relationship with Apple, Inc.  It's more hate than love, and the fact that I can feel hate or love for a corporation disturbs me.  Years ago, during an animated discussion with my brother about Microsoft and Apple he gave me some advice.  He said, "You shouldn't love or hate something that can't love or hate you back."  This is not to be confused with loving somebody who doesn't love you back. Unrequited love is a whole different concept.  My brother was referring to my ongoing angst over the Windows/Mac 'war' that was raging.  That bit of advice really struck a chord with me, and I tried to follow my brother's advice from then on with varying amounts of success.

I tried to not care about the ridiculous war of words being fought in tech magazines, the web, and around the water cooler about the virtues and demerits of Apple and Microsoft, and for a while, I was successful. It was then that those infuriating, and sometimes misleading, Mac/PC ads started to air.  In the ads a young and hip guy plays the 'Mac.'  An older, fatter, nerdier, dumber man portrays 'PC.'  In the commercials, the 'PC' would invariably be made the fool, and the 'Mac' would be shown to be the smarter and cooler choice.  I get it.  It's a commercial for Apple, it is going to promote their products.  What got to me was that Apple was comparing all Windows users to dumb, fat, losers.  Why should I support a company that views me as such?  Switching to a Mac would make me feel like I let the school yard bully take my lunch money.  That ad campaign is the perfect example of Apple's smug attitude that makes me hate it.  There are many other reasons for my disgust.  The 'Genius Bar', fanatics at MacWord hanging on Steve Job's every word as if  it was a revival meeting, and the general 'fancy pants' design of Apple store...and so much more.

Take the iPhone for example.  For years now, the computer industry has been migrating from the desktop to the 'cloud'.  Data and applications hosted on servers and accessed via the internet is rapidly becoming more common, freeing users from being tied to their hardware.  Apple comes along with the iPhone and reverses the 'cloud computing' trend by forcing all iPhone users to download applications, or as Apple calls them 'apps.'  The iPhone does support Adobe Flash.  If it did, developers would be able to build Flash applications formatted to fit the iPhone screen (or any smart phone screen) and deliver them via the Web, thus bypassing Apples' control.  According to an article on Wikipedia, Apple charges developers $99 per year and takes a 30% commission on every app sold through the App Store.  Apple markets and  makes money on the fact that the iPhone has tens of thousands of available applications, third party developers build them, and Apple takes 30 percent!  Quite a good racket.  Imagine if Microsoft tried to use this method of application distribution with Windows 7?  The DOJ would get an injunction to halt its release.  Now that Apple has had so much success with this model, Microsoft, Blackberry, Palm, etc. are following suit.  I own a Motorola Droid with the Google developed Android operating system.  There is an Android 'app store', but you can also develop and distribute apps outside of the Android Market.

Apple holds all the cards.  In an effort to keep the iPhone system from being filled with malicious and resource draining apps (a noble cause) they have exerted full censorship on content while taking a hefty sum from every developer.  All this and Apple's image is as shinny as, well, an apple.  I against government control over the technology industry, and I believe Apple has every right to conduct business any way they want, but, Apple fanatics, just wait until the Department of Justice antitrust division comes knocking on Apple's door in a few years.  Ask Microsoft, there is a price to pay for market dominance.

So, where is the 'love' in this 'love/hate' relationship.  The love is for the technology.  I love computers and gadgets, and Apple makes some cool stuff.  Also, Apple is an American computer and consumer electronics company.  Apple's success benefits the American economy and thus benefits me.  Some Apple users (and I must emphasize SOME) are so insular in their view of technology.  If it doesn't have an Apple logo on it, they don't want to know from it.  When I go to the mall, I stop in the Apple store, but I also browse around the SonyStyle store.  I am a Microsoft enthusiast, but I just installed Ubuntu Linux on my computer, dual booting with Windows 7, to check it out.  I really like Microsoft's Bing search engine, but Google still has the best search algorithm.  Why would anybody limit their access to technology to one company?

I guess I'm not doing very well following my brother's advice about not loving or hating something that can't love or hate you back, but I'm gong to try harder to follow his example in 2010.  I think I can do it.  Now, I just need some way to stop hating the Yankees and getting my heart broken by the Mets every year.