Verizon counters iPhone 4 with Droid X

Google and US cellco Verizon Wireless has unveiled their challenger to Apple’s iPhone 4 – the Android-powered Droid X smartphone, made by Motorola.

 

The Droid X – which features a 4.3-inch display and can run Flash software - will cost $199.99 on a two-year contract and will be released by Verizon in the US on July 15, WSJ reports. 

 

That’s one day after rival AT&T is due to ship pre-ordered iPhone 4 devices.

 

AT&T and Apple opened pre-orders for the newest iPhone last week, selling more than 600,000 iPhone 4’s by the end of the day.

 

Andy Rubin, vice president engineering for Android developer Google, countered by saying that 160,000 Android-powered devices are activated in some 49 countries daily.

 

“That’s nearly two devices every second,” Rubin said on the Google blog. “In some instances, Android devices are selling faster than they can be manufactured,” he wrote.

 

Rubin announced that Google is now open-sourcing its new 2.2 version of Android, called Froyo, to smartphone vendors.

 

“Customers will enjoy great new features and improved browser performance,” Rubin said on Froyo.

 

He said developers will benefit from new tools such as Android cloud-to-device messaging.