Will Motorola’s Droid Pro replace the BlackBerry for businesses?

This week Motorola announced their new cell phone, the DROID PRO. It is being targeted as a business cell phone or the next productivity powerhouse.  Motorola Mobility CEO said that business users will drop their BlackBerry phones for the new Droid Pro. Quite a bold statement for a phone that has not been released as yet.

While we cannot predict how this phone will perform here in Canada, we can review its features and investigate whether the phone is indeed suited to be the Business Productivity powerhouse as suggested by Motorola.

First look at Droid Pro

The Droid Pro looks distinctly similar to a BlackBerry smartphone – they say imitation is the best form of flattery – with a Full QWERTY keyboard and a 3.1″ (320 x 480 HVGA) screen. Here are some of the key features of this device:

1. This is an Android 2.2 based device
2. Includes a 1GHz OMAP 3620 processor
3. 512 MB of RMA , 2GB of ROM and 8GB of internal storage
4. A 5MP auto focus camera with digital zoon and dual LED flash
5. A 3G mobile hotspot with support for up to five devices
6. Includes Bluetooth and support for Wifi
7. Support for CDMA, GSM and HSPA modes
8. Webkit browser with Flash 10.1 support
9. Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) connectivity to other DLNA enabled devices (stream, store and share content)

Business capable features

In order for the Droid Pro to even challenge the BlackBerry is has to match the infracstructure and security of the BlackBerry. According to Motorola’s press release the Droid pro will have the following business capable features:

1. This will be the first Android device with data encryption (due in Q1 2011)
2. Remote swiping of phone and SD card
3. Remote password management
4. Corporate level security
5. Push email along with QuickOffice Mobile Suite which allows editing of common documents
6. Android support and integration with Ms Exchange

Will it replace the BlackBerry?

The business capable features of the Droid Pro are resonable, but alot of these features have been integrated with almost every BlackBerry cell phone. And Motorola lacks the established infracstructure and system integration all ready installed in many enterprise and corporate systems. So what I do believe is that Motorola is trying to leverage its “cool” features like DLNA connectivity,  its Webkit browser with Flash support, and the great experience of the Android operating system to woo businesses over.

The verdict isn’t quite out on whether this will ever be a BlackBerry replacement device, unlikely, but we will have to wait to see the traction the Droid Pro gets on launch. The Droid Pro is expected to be launched in Canada and the US before the end of 2010 during the holiday season.