Verizon Announces Motorola's Newest iPhone Killer (VZ, MOT, AAPL)

Verizon Communications VZ officially announced Motorola's MOT newest iPhone competitor Tuesday, the Droid 2. Motorola's Droid 2 ships with Google's GOOG Android 2.2, mobile hotspot capability (a $20 / month add-on), Flash Player 10.1 and a revised QWERTY keyboard. Additionally, the phone carries a 3.7-inch multitouch display, 5 megapixel camera, DLNA streaming, 8GB of onboard memory and a 8GB microSD card. Verizon is putting the new smartphone up for pre-sale tomorrow at $199.99 on a 2-year contract, with in-store availability locked for Thursday. Verizon has been hunting for months for an alternative to Apple's AAPL popular iPhone. Despite hardware issues, the iPhone 4 has enjoyed a strong reception since its launch earlier this summer. Motorola and Verizon can take solace, though, in a recent report showing that Google's Android operating software passed Research in Motion's RIMM BlackBerry in second quarter purchases. BlackBerry has held the number one spot since 2007. Verizon, Motorola, and Apple are all down today, amid a market selloff. Research in Motion is higher by 1%, to $55.84.