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Droid application downloads increased by 93 percent over previous Fridays in December. Droid accounted for 48 percent of download volume across the leading Android handsets (Droid, myTouch 3G, G1 and HTC Hero).

With the DROID, the company has perhaps created its most attractive and intriguing piece of technology yet.

The DROID is an odd and beautiful device.

Throughout our tests, we were consistently impressed with the tightness and speed of navigation on the phone. The DROID makes Android feel modern the way the iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre are -- like machines designed for a pace of life that's increasingly more Twitter and less USPS.

Motorola Droid makes an official appearance on Moto’s U.S. site. It just might be that we were sent this direct link which isn’t mean to be public, but… you know how that’s going to work out. In any case, the Motorola Droid, which we have torn limb from limb (check for our preview tomorrow) is indeed a bad ass mama jama, but if you don’t want to wait for our preview, hit the jump for some screenshots!

Like other Android gadgets, the Droid’s app storage is limited to a meager 256MB. Yes, it comes with a 16GB SD card that can be replaced with a 32GB card, but there’s likely to be some backlash from consumers who’ve never used removable memory before. The Droid’s browser is inferior to the iPhone 3.1 Safari browser, according to MobileCrunch, with slower page loads and slightly less compliance to web standards. While the European version of the Droid — which is dubbed the Milestone — features a multitouch screen, the U.S. version does not, eliminating the ability for users to pinch and zoom as they can on the iPhone.

Droid vs. iPhone: Them's fightin' words

A couple of parting observations about the passion of the comments about this phone: They suggest the Droid has quickly emerged as the phone around which iPhone critics have coalesced. It's emerging as the preeminent un-iPhone or even anti-iPhone. The comments are further evidence that no community of observers takes a closer and more critical interest in how we test and assess than smart-phone fans. We've experienced that in the past, when we updated the methodology and presentation of our smart-phone Ratings (available to subscribers) in response to the changing nature of these devices.

And, without further ado, we bring you the Droid vs. iPhone vs. Palm Pre vs. MyTouch 3G …

is this the DROID you've been looking for?

If the iPhone didn't finish off Windows Mobile in the smartphone market, the Motorola Droid may. Windows Mobile is losing the last vestiges of its mojo

In August, according to AdMob, Windows Mobile had only a 4 percent share of the mobile OS market worldwide, down from 7 percent in February

So the Droid may not be the iPhone killer but rather the Windows Mobile slayer. Microsoft, of course, will always have the unassailable PC franchise. But, wait, isn't Android coming to Netbooks next year? Maybe the real battle royal for Microsoft is yet to come.

For Apple (AAPL), the short answer is: The iPhone will continue to apply the Macintosh method—that is, controlling all or most of the user’s experience—with similar results: smaller market share, disproportionally larger profits than the separate hardware-software crowd. More on this later.

With this week's release of Verizon Wireless' Droid phone comes the first real test of the potential for fragmentation with Android. The Droid will be the first phone to run Android 2.0. After it goes on sale Friday, there will be Android phones on the market running three different versions of the OS.

Google gave an equally vague answer to questions about which phones might be upgraded and if any of them had hardware limitations that might prevent an upgrade. "Because Android is open source, all software updates we release are available for carriers and handset makers to take and update their current or future Android-powered devices," Katie Watson, a Google spokeswoman said via e-mail.

If the Droid sales keep their current pace, it should be able to surpass one million units sold before Christmas, let alone New Year.

Here is a GPU comparison for some of the leading smartphones: Motorola Droid: TI OMAP3430 with PowerVR SGX530 = 7 million(?) triangles/sec Nexus One: Qualcomm QSD8×50 with Adreno 200 = 22 million triangles/sec iPhone 3G S: 600 MHz Cortex-A8 with PowerVR SGX535 = 28 million triangles/sec Samsung Galaxy S: S5PC110 with PowerVR SGX540 = 90 million triangles/sec

Several technology firms targeting retail segment such as Microsoft, Cisco and Google and leading retailers are already testing ideas with this AR concept. Although none have been successful yet, few of the products / concepts such as high capacity mobile computing (e.g. iPhone & DROID) and Microsoft’s ‘Project Natal’   seem to be promising to take this technology mainstream in the near future. 

One of the biggest selling points of the Moment is its speedy 800MHz processor

The keyboard on this device is a series of contradictions. Actually, it really all boils down to one: it's generously large, hampered by a somewhat strange layout that makes mistypes a more frequent occurrence than they should be. On the left side, for example, Samsung has elected to make room for the Function key by pushing the letter keys to the right, meaning that A is further right than Z -- something that takes some getting used to. The space bar interrupts the lower row, placed between V and B, and the Enter key is to the right of the Up key, which is next to P in the top letter row. We're sure we could get used to all of these quirks, but why should we have to? Why couldn't have Samsung just come up with a more typical layout? Anyhow, once you get past that, the keys are generally easy to type on -- they're not particularly three-dimensional, but they're spaced far enough apart (and each one is large enough) so that finding them and hitting only the one you intend to is a pretty straightforward process, they're very clicky, and the dedicated numeric row is certainly a plus.