OK, we have a launch date - Nov. 6 (next week Friday) - and price - $199.99 with a 2-year contract and $100 mail-in rebate - for the Motorola Droid from Verizon...

Hello Humans: Droid By Motorola Arrives Next Week

We also have a minimum MRC (monthly recurring cost) - $69.98 - for voice and data. So, the Droid from Verizon doesn't offer any purchase price or MRC advantage over the iPhone from AT&T. It does offer, of course, the promise of a larger and faster voice and data network (Verizon vs. AT&T). Android doesn't have the enormous app eco-system that's been built for the iPhone over the past 15 months. So, what does it offer if not price or apps? Droid the Verizon network as I mentioned earlier. It has the promise of a potential huge build-up of apps. And, it has a physical keyboard. But, that keyboard may be its biggest weakness. Earlier, I wrote about the Boy Genius Report's less than impressed take of the Droid's keyboard...

BGR's Take on the Motorola Droid - Mostly Good Except for the Keyboard

And, here's what Engadget says about the Droid keyboard in this blog entry...

Motorola DROID first hands-on! (update: video, impressions, more pics)

The keyboard takes some getting used to, and it suffers from a similar hand-position issue as the G1, but it's fairly usable. We think it'll be second nature once we spend some time with it. This is not exactly a glowing review of the keyboard. It should have been one of the Droid's most attractive features. Instead, it is, at best, maybe ok.

Some people have been surprisingly adept at using the iPhone's virtual keyboard. Even, I've been more comfortable with it since the availability of landscape keyboard access in apps like Mail. Moto should have take more care in designing the Droid's physical keyboard.