Battle Lines Are Drawn: Droid vs. iPhone

When it comes to doing business on the go, most of us are divided into two camps: Blackberry or iPhone. Blackberry users are generally more business-driven, while iPhone fans are often accused—in many cases, justifiably—as being more interested in the “cool” factor. (In the interest of full disclosure, I admit to being one of the latter.) Still, they are both effective tools for keeping up with e-mails, Twitter and Facebook—all for work purposes, of course.

The smartphone market for business users has just gotten a lot more interesting, however, with the addition of the Motorola Droid from Verizon Wireless, a touchscreen smartphone on Google's Android 2.0 operating system that aims straight at the iPhone.

This could be great news for home-based travel agents, because the Verizon Droid supports Microsoft Exchange for business e-mail. The iPhone 3GS also supports Exchange, but older iPhones do not have an encrypted connection.

The Droid features a touchscreen slightly larger than the iPhone, but comes with a sliding QWERTY keyboard. The device is also pre-loaded with Google Maps Navigator for turn-by-turn GPS directions.

Interestingly, as Gaebler.com reports, although Droid ads paid for by Verizon depicting the iPhone as the "iDon't" target rival telecom AT&T, which has the iPhone contract exclusively until next year, there are news reports of Verizon's interest in getting a deal to carry the iPhone.

One Wall Street analyst predicted this week that Verizon will get the iPhone contract next year, because AT&T has been burdened by subsidizing the true cost of the handsets, Computerworld reported.

In the meantime, I’ll be checking out the “cool” factor of the Droid…oh yeah, and its business usability as well.