The highly anticipated Motorola Droid 2 handset from Verizon may be coming sooner than you think. An Engadget reader from NC noticed his local Best Buy displaying Motorola Droid 2 dummy phones. The pricing information showed the phones running at $199 or $599 without a contract. This is pretty typical for phones of this caliber, so it’s reasonable to believe the reports.
This past weekend, Motorola and Verizon went to old media to alert potential customers of the upcoming upgrade opportunity. They posted full-page ads in newspapers across the U.S., but didn’t include any specific launch date. The ad simply says “Rule Your Empire with Iron Thumbs” and touts the “NEW advanced keyboard” the Droid 2 will be sporting. The Droid 2 dominates the ad, which also features the Droid Incredible and the newly released Droid X. The Incredible and the X both carry a price tag of $199.
While the ad only gets as specific as “coming soon,” rumor has it that the device will be launched on August 12th. As PC World notes, it seems odd that Verizon would place ads in the paper so close to the launch date (the 12th is in 3 days), without actually including the launch date. Either they are confident that the Droid brand stands on its own or the rumors are false.
The August 12th launch date is still up in the air, but it seems suspicious that the original Droid is suddenly showing up as “out of stock” on Verizon’s site. Obviously, the Droid 2 will replace the Droid and it looks like the original is moving out of the way for the impending launch.
The Droid 2 will be the first phone to have Android 2.2 (Froyo) pre-installed. This brings Adobe Flash 10.1 support and the ability to install apps to the SD Card out of the box. The Droid 2 sports a 1Ghz processor.
As we’ve previously noted here, the primary difference between the Droid 2 and other phones in the same genre (Evo, Droid X, etc.) is the physical keyboard. For many, this may seem like a step back, but a decent number of potential customers are looking for an advanced android phone with a keyboard.