Verizon Wireless is slated to begin selling Motorola’s new Droid Pro on Tuesday at a post-rebate price of $180 with a two-year service commitment. The new handset based on Google’s Android 2.2 mobile platform is expected to challenge Research In Motion’s domination of the mobile enterprise space.
RIM’s successful BlackBerry platform also faces competition from the new devices running Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 OS unleashed by Samsung and HTC Monday. Their timing is fortuitous, given that analysts on Wall Street indicated last week that some corporations are thinking about moving away from RIM’s BlackBerrys.
The BlackBerry platform appears to have lost its luster because “e-mail got commoditized and the security offered by other devices is now good enough for most organizations,” said Gartner Research Vice President Carolina Milanesi. However, “security and the cost of roaming are the two main issues” that companies will need to keep in mind when considering any switch to rival devices, she added.
Global Ready
Motorola’s Droid Pro sports a one-gigahertz processor, 4GB of memory, a 3.1-inch display, a QWERTY keypad, and a five-megapixel camera with autofocus. To make the smartphone business-friendly, it comes pre-loaded with the Quickoffice Mobile Suite, which gives users the ability to interact with Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations based on Microsoft’s Office business-productivity offering.
Droid Pro users will be able to access wireless voice service in more than 220 countries as well as 3G data coverage in 120 countries and standard mobile-data access in more than 200 countries. Moreover, the device’s hot-spot capability can provide up to five other Wi-Fi-enabled devices to access its 3G mobile connection, enabling mobile workers to provide clients and peers with direct wireless access on the fly.
Motorola’s new smartphone also offers live widgets for displaying new e-mail messages directly on the home screen,…