Verizon And Motorola Teaming On Two More DroidsVerizon And Motorola Teaming On Two More Droids

Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha recently informed investors that the company plans to release two more Droid-branded handsets with Verizon in July. He also said that Verizon will be backing them up with big marketing campaigns. Can lightning strike twice for Motorola and Verizon?With more than one million sold, we can't deny that the Motorola Droid, which went on sale in November 2009, has been a success. It's a shame that the follow-up to the Droid on Verizon's network, the Devour, hasn't had the same impact. Motorola needs another hit phone. According to Jha, it will deliver them in July to the nation's largest network. "We will introduce new Droid products in the Verizon franchise," he said.

What's more interesting is that Jha also noted that Verizon will be advertising the new Droid devices heavily. That's good news, because I am sure I haven't seen a commercial for the Devour. Verizon has spent $100 million advertising the Droid and Droid Incredible, both its flagship Android smartphones. We have to assume that Verizon wouldn't be committing so much money to the new devices if they are stinkers.

One of them is potentially the Motorola Shadow, which was recently discovered in a Verizon corporate gym. The Shadow likely has 16GB of internal storage; a Snapdragon processor; an 8 megapixel camera; an HDMI out port; and a 4.1-inch screen. Based on these specs, it should be a decent device. We don't know anything about the second device.

It's worth pointing out that Verizon Wireless, not Motorola, is licensing the "Droid" brand from Lucasfilm. Therefore, it is up to Verizon to stick the Droid branding on the handsets its deems worthy of that moniker.

"Never from the beginning did we assume this would be a Motorola thing," said Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon Wireless. "If [customers] think Android, that's the generic. If they think Droid, that's going to be the latest and the greatest on our network."

"Latest" and "greatest" sounds good to me. Both Verizon and Motorola will need to put their best foot forward this summer, as the next-generation iPhone is widely expected to go on sale in June.

[Via Wall Street Journal]