Remember the Droid?

Remember when the Motorola/Verizon Droid line was android? Well, that was November 2009. Yes, 2009, and now the partnership wants back their slice of the android pie. 

Motorola has been turning out new models on the line ever since its creation, but with the creation of Nexus, the popularization of the Samsung Galaxy line, and the migration to tablets, it was slowly drowned out, considered a dinosaur. The rest of the tech world simply smiled, patted Motorola on the back, and disappeared into the distance. Now, it's not fair to say that the line is, or was dead. People still use MySpace. No brand or system ever is completely extinguished, some trace will still remain.

Recently, though, the company is making a comeback, introducing the Motorola X, which has been the elephant in the room through every mobile debate and review. Rumors abound, and trustworthy information is hard to find. However, today is not the day to discuss the X phone, as it has come to be known. Marques Brownlee makes an excellent point in his honest and funny video rant about the X phone: "The thing about the X phone is, stop it, it doesn't exist (yet)"-MKBHD.

However, the Motorola Droid Maxx has been hyped for release for about a month now, and there are some pretty outrageous rumors circulating its creation. I personally don't invest in rumors, but these are some of them:

• 48-hour battery life- would please a particular audience
• Kevlar coating- pretty cool
• Gorilla glass- not that big a deal
• 10MP camera- decent, but not very telling

There are more, but these are the most concrete. This certainly does say something for Motorola, which plans to bomb the market with three models of the Droid: Maxx, Ultra, and Mini. These phones compete well in the specs category against more popular phones like the Samsung Galaxy S4, but with no price to compare, we must leave two areas of competition: price and software. These phones will not be running stock android, but it will be interesting to see what the interface looks like. The S4 is aiming straight for the high-end market, but these phones have the potential to bring low cost to a high-end phone if the rest of the phone measures up to the claims.

If these were to run stock android with only slight modifications in the way of extra features, than they would appeal to a greater audience, and I think this would be a great way to sell the product. It will be interesting to see how this product performs in the market, as it is trailing a history of fruitless work. Even if it were successful, it might not be able to dig itself out out of the relative rut that Motorola is stuck in at the moment. The other problem that the Maxx faces is that it is being released in the shadow of its more popular cousin, the Motorola X. What do you think? Will the Motorola Droid Maxx be a roaring success? Or has the Motorola/Verizon partnership produced another flop?

More Smartphones from Samsung

Samsung has always had a huge array of mobile products, expanding especially in the last 2 years with the introduction of the galaxy note and galaxy tab, in addition to the Galaxy line, which are the most popular android phones on the market. However, the Korean electronics giant has introduced a new trend propagating across its platforms. Samsung has been introducing, along with its original products, related versions of the devices with minor variations. Enter the Galaxy S4 mini, active, and Google Play edition, which vary from the stock S4 in size, toughness, and android edition, respectively. While this seems quite enough, it seems Samsung is preparing to take this trend to its very limit.

We love choice, but...what?

According to Korean technology news site ETNews, Samsung is laying the groundwork to launch even more models than it currently does, by a factor of 4. The logic behind this is most likely to appeal to a greater percentage of consumers, who are meant to feel that there is a model out there that perfectly suits their needs. However, it takes the risk of inundating itself, because if said consumer begins to look for a new phone or tablet, they are barraged by the number of devices available.

The enigmatic Galaxy Note 3 is surrounded by rumors, including the number of models that will be available. However, when a site that collects Samsung User Agent Profiles turned up two UAPs from the company, we had a lead. The profiles, which are SM-N900T and SM-N900A, showed products with full HD displays, but no other information. There was no way to determine the difference between the products connected to the two codes. However, this does show that the product, whatever it is, runs by the code SM-N900. When a writer for Android Beat, Stefan Constantinescu, ran a query on the SM-N900 profile, he discovered a site that monitors and records imports and exports of India, where Samsung manufactures their products. Their database contained eight references to the SM-N900 code that were imported to India from South Korea, Samsung's head of operations. They were supposedly imported for R&D (research and development) purposes. They varied slightly from the two originals. They are:

• SM-N900
• SM-N900V
• SM-N900T
• SM-N900A
• SM-N900AI
• SM-N900P
• SM-N900R4
• SM-N900S

The long list of profiles leads to two possible conclusions:

1) Samsung is simply testing multiple prototypes of the devices

2) The Galaxy Note 3 has many different models, each code corresponds to a different one

Samsung Updates also suggested that the A, S, T, and V codes could stand for the major US carriers: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon, which could mean the Galaxy Note 3 would be carrier-specific, or even exclusive.

One problem for Samsung is that it is considered to be a high-end, high-priced manufacturer, and will most likely work to perpetuate that label. Unfortunately, this could cause them to actually lose audience as the market shifts toward low-cost, mid-range devices, regardless of their range of options. However, it's possible that one of the models could actually be designed as a low-cost model, with some features unavailable. Seeing Samsung's tendency toward high-end, high-cost phones and tablets like the Galaxy line, this is not likely.

With the Motorola X picking up speed in the tech world, one of the rumors concerning it- and one of the best proven- is that it will be completely customizable, down to the ability to choose a wooden backing over options of plastic, aluminum, and possibly others. This seems like a different approach to the same problem that Samsung is looking to solve-creating more choice for consumers. It will be interesting to see these two concepts perform alongside one another and compare their performance.

Samsung is taking a huge risk; if the device- the Galaxy Note 3, for example- fails, then all eight versions fail. Also, for developers, modifying their software to suit so many different devices may be a nightmare. Will the tech world want to take on the immense burden of Samsung, or have they finally gone too far?