Verizon has now locked in Motorola as the only manufacturer to create Droid devices. Starting with the Droid Ultra, Mini and Maxx that were announced today, Motorola is the only smartphone manufacturer that will be building Droid smartphones. At least, that’s what Verizon Marketing Executive Jeff Dietel told CNET today.
Verizon and Motorola go way back. All the way to the original Droid in 2009 which started it all. The “new” partnership between the two locks up a prime flagship slot for Motorola, which they are badly in need of. Many vendors are opting to put their phones on as many carriers as possible and stay away from exclusives. Motorola is looking to bank on a Verizon exclusive because they know Verizon will help market the devices.
“There are millions of users that are happy with it and loyal to the Droid brand” said Rick Osterloh who is the head of product management at Motorola. “Droid is a formula that works very well.” Dietel also said that the Droid Ultra lineup would remain Verizon’s flagship for a while and promised a longer shelf life for the products than the past “hero” products.
As we already noted, Verizon and Motorola has had a long and crazy relationship. Many would argue that Motorola’s OG Droid is the device that really made Android popular, although others could argue that the HTC EVO 4G and Galaxy S devices helped tremendously as well. But in the past, Motorola hasn’t been the only Droid manufacturer. HTC and Samsung have made a few as well. But Motorola has made the most of the devices.
All three of these devices will be available at Verizon on August 20th. Which will bring a lot of hype to Verizon, along with the Moto X hitting Verizon in the same month. I expect to see plenty more profits for both companies come Q3 earnings in October.