Right on schedule, Verizon and Motorola have announced details of the Droid Pro, the first Droid device to have connectivity availability in areas outside of North America. Verizon hopes to entice business customers with the new global handset.
What’s new is that in addition to Verizon’s standard CDMA chipset, it also has a GSM radio. GSM is the standard used in many parts of Europe, as well as with AT&T and T-Mobile in the US.
From a feature perspective, it’s on par with the Droid Pro. So it will come with Android 2.2, including the ability to use the phone as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot.
The Droid Pro was first outed early this year when it was found in an internal product listing for Verizon. It was quickly assumed this would be the previously-rumored “Droid Global,” a worldwide service version of an existing Droid unit rather than a brand new Droid phone. However, the final version of the Droid Pro does look very different, almost like a typical Blackberry phone.
What else is new with the Droid Pro is its eye toward enterprise customers. It has full support for Exchange, mobile Microsoft Office, and VPN integration. It also can function with remote controls, wherein a company could handle multiple Droid Pro units from a centralized location – including remote wipes and data control, and password support.
The enterprise segment historically has belonged almost exclusively to Research in Motion’s Blackberry service. However, there’s been a recent paradigm shift in this market as companies are leaving RIM en masse and turning to Android and the iPhone.
Under the hood, the Droid Pro has 2 GB of built-in storage, a 1 GHz TI processor, and 720p HD video recording.
The device will go on pre-order beginning tomorrow, and will be available for sale November 18. It’s priced at a reasonably affordable $180, after a $100 mail-in rebate and a new service agreement.
