By JR Raphael - Thu Oct 29, 2009 8:17PM EDT

You may not be able to get your hands on Verizon's Motorola Droid for another week, but you can get your name on one starting today. Best Buy opened the doors to the first Droid presale on Thursday -- and it's offering an instant rebate if you sign up, too.

Motorola Droid Madness

The Motorola Droid, officially revealed Wednesday after a buzz-building marketing campaign, is making plenty of waves for its sleek design -- its 3.7-inch, 854-by-480 pixel display dwarfs the iPhone's 3.5-inch, 480-by-320 pixel offering -- as well as for its standout features such as built-in turn-by-turn navigation and full multitasking support. And, thanks to its new Android 2.0 operating system, the phone packs a host of other options the rest of the upcoming Android phones won't see for some time.

(For a full look at some of the Droid's most noteworthy assets, see "Verizon Droid: 5 Standout Features.")

Already, analysts are calling for the Droid to reverse Verizon's sliding profits and help Motorola rebound from some less-than-stellar years. And, of course, the inevitable iPhone comparisons are cropping up left and right.

Sorry to disappoint, but we won't be using the phrase "iPhone-killer" here today, other than to suggest that anyone who calls anything a "something-killer" should be bludgeoned with a giant Styrofoam mallet. (The same applies to anyone who commits one of these cell phone sins, be it on an iPhone, a Droid, or a two-pound DynaTAC 8000X.)

Droids For Sale

Regardless of whether the Droid causes the iPhone to "lose its mojo" and go limp, it's clearly drumming up an awful lot of excitement. Best Buy is attempting to cash in on the frenzy by letting you reserve your very own Droid phone now -- without having shell out an extra hundred dollars.

The Droid, you see, actually costs $299.99 (with a two-year contract). You then have to send away a mail-in rebate to get $100 back and reach the frequently quoted $199.99 price tag. As of Thursday, however, you can reserve one at any Best Buy store and pay only the $199.99; the store will instantly apply the $100 rebate at checkout. When the phone comes out on November 6, you'll walk in, pick up your Droid, and walk out.

Cost, incidentally, is one Droid-iPhone comparison worth making. BillShrink created a side-by-side chart pitting the Motorola Droid up against the iPhone 3GS. The devices themselves run the same price, but what about those hefty voice and data fees after 24 months of contractually signed service? Turns out they're the same, too.

Unlimited voice/data plans for both the iPhone 3GS and the Motorola Droid amount to $3799 over two years, BillShrink discovered. When it comes to an "average plan" -- calculated by BillShrink as being 900 minutes with 5 GB of data and unlimited messaging -- the iPhone and the Droid both come out to the same $2839 over their initial 24-month periods.

iDon't know about you, but I'm guessing that's no coincidence.

NEW YORK (Reuters) -

Motorola Inc's new Droid phone will be the first to use navigation software from Google Inc, in a direct challenge to GPS device makers Garmin and TomTom.

The Droid will go on sale on November 6 at Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile service provider, which said it will promote the phone with its biggest marketing campaign ever. It will cost $199 for customers who commit to a two-year service contract, Verizon Wireless said on Wednesday.

Shares of TomTom fell 19 percent, extending their losses after the Dutch navigation device maker said earlier on Wednesday that economic weakness was making holiday sales tough to predict. ID:nLS458927 Garmin shares fell 12 percent.

The Droid, which includes a computer-like keyboard and a new version of Google's software, Android 2.0, will also compete against Apple Inc's iPhone which is available on AT&T Inc's network in the United States.

Verizon Wireless Chief Marketing Officer John Stratton said he believed the Droid would hold its own against the iPhone, even as he conceded that Apple had revolutionized the smartphone industry.

"We have to demystify the notion that (iPhone's) untouchable," Stratton told reporters at the launch event in New York. "This product can stand up and compete."

Google said Android 2.0 would include a Google Maps Navigation product with real-time, turn-by-turn walking or driving directions. ID:nN27274525

It will also respond to voice commands and offers a visual display that incorporates Google's online archive of street photographs.

Motorola said Droid was the world's thinnest phone to feature a slide-out QWERTY keypad. It also sports a five-megapixel camera and a day's worth of battery life.

"It's a pretty dramatic evolution of what Android was," Motorola Chief Executive Sanjay Jha told reporters.

Droid represents a massive bet for Motorola, which after losing ground to rivals for more than two years has reorganized its entire mobile business around the development of phones based on Android.

Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, will look to the device to help it stem market-share losses to AT&T.

Verizon recently started showing Droid video ads highlighting its advantages over iPhone, without actually describing the device itself. Stratton did not say how much the marketing campaign would cost.

"As long as it's not buggy, it will do quite well," Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart said. "I don't think this will single-handedly save Motorola but it's a crucial step."

Greengart said that Android was "closing the gap" with rivals.

TomTom shares were down 18.8 percent at 8.31 euros and Garmin shares were down 11.8 percent at $33.34 near midday on the Nasdaq. Motorola shares were up 1.3 percent at $8.00, Verizon shares were up 2.3 percent at $29.86, while Google shares were down 0.9 percent at $543.52.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew, additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic, editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Tiffany Wu and Matthew Lewis)

Verizon Wireless' PR agency recently revealed the Motorola Droid release date, and the countdown to a proper announcement has been shortened down.

According to Gearlog's Sascha Segan, Verizon Wireless is set out to make a proper announcement of the Motorola Droid on Wednesday October 28. Furthermore, after receiving a postcard from the carrier's PR agency, Segan believes the specific Motorola Droid release date will be Monday November 9. If you've somehow avoided the Motorola Droid buzz this week, here's the details that are known so far: Through a marketing campaign, Verizon Wireless reveals (and confirms) a range of key features of the Motorola Droid here. First of all, the Motorola Droid will offer a slide-out QWERTY thumbboard, similar to the recently reviewed Motorola CLIQ. However, while the Motorola CLIQ is powered by Android 1.5, the Motorola Droid will be the first phone to be powered by Android 2.0. Some of the new features that Android 2.0 seems to bring to the Motorola Droid includes native sync support for Exchange and Facebook, a new Maps application, a new UI makeover and much more. Boy Genius Report has spent some time with the Motorola Droid here. Verizon Wireless says that the Motorola Droid will sport a 5-megapixel camera with night shot capabilities, as well as a high-res screen that is rumored to be a 3.7-inch screen with a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. The Motorola Droid will sport a 600 MHz TI OMAP 3430 processor, which is also found in the iPhone 3GS. The Motorola Droid price tag has yet to be announced, but the carrier tends to price its new smartphones at $200 with a two-year contract and a qualifying plan nowadays - perhaps best known and first introduced as the iPhone 3GS price level after subsidies.

We just got some wild information from a trusted source about Verizon's Android strategy, and let's just say this shakes things up a little bit. Here are the big takeaways:

• Droid is the brand name being applied to Verizon's Android devices. It isn't a single phone.
• The Sholes -- the phone we've been calling the Droid so far -- may simply be known as the Droid.
• HTC's Desire will be coming to market as the "Droid Eris." (Allow us to save you the Wikipedia lookup -- Eris is the Greek goddess of strife.) Interestingly, it's already up on gdgt as such.
• Droid Eris will be released -- not announced, actually released -- on November 6. In all likelihood, it will not be announced or shown at Verizon's October 28 event -- that will probably just be for the Sholes.

That's all we've got so far, but it's a heck of a change in plans, isn't it? It's interesting that Verizon will be applying a sub-brand to its Android line -- and a pretty solid sign that Big Red's got a serious commitment to the platform going forward.