Skip to main content

Motorola is now the sole producer of Verizon's Droid smartphones

Motorola is now the sole producer of Verizon's Droid smartphones

Share this story

Droid Ultra
Droid Ultra

Today, Motorola and Verizon launched three new Droid smartphones at an event in New York — the Droid Mini, Droid Ultra, and Droid Maxx. And much more quietly, Verizon also confirmed to CNET that the days of Droid handsets from HTC, Samsung, and anyone else that isn't Motorola are now over. The Google-owned hardware company is now Verizon's sole Droid producer.

While the new Motorola exclusivity means the end of the HTC Droid Incredible and Samsung Droid Charge brands, it doesn't mean the carrier will stop pushing Droids as the company's flagship phones, Jeff Dietel, Verizon's vice president of marketing operations, told CNET. In fact, Dietel said that Motorola's new Droid trio would remain on Verizon shelves longer than Droid models of the past as a part of the new exclusive relationship. This exclusivity and extended shelf life could explain why Motorola was willing to give the new Droid trio nearly every distinctive feature found on its own carrier-agnostic flagship phone, the upcoming Moto X.

Motorola needs the Droids to be a hit

If Verizon can sell the new Droids in significant numbers, it could provide a sorely needed boost for Motorola, which has been racking up losses since Google completed its purchase of the company for $12.5 billion last year. "Droid is a formula that works very well," Rick Osterloh, Motorola's head of product management, told CNET. "There are millions of users that are happy with it and loyal to the Droid brand."