Motorola, Google and Verizon launched Droid a few days ago. At the very first impression, the Droid has been winning the consumer and the analyst appreciation. It has many coop features that a smart phone competing with iPhone should have. And then it has the hype of Android in it. So, the question is, what does it mean to RIM's Blackberry, blackberry users and blackberry developers? IMO, this will have a great impact on the market of RIM handsets and hence an impact on Blackberry apps and developers.

Here is my reasoning. There are just two main wireless carriers in the US: AT&T and Verizon. AT&T has been widely promoting iPhone as its smart phone. Why wouldn't it! With its well know user experience, sleekness and the app store, iPhone has been scoring big as compared to its competition. The iPhone App Store has many many applications that a user would need on a smart phone. With their improved email functionality, even the corporations have been going for the phone. This leaves a little room for any other smart phone on AT&T network. And that other smart phone happens to be Blackberry.

On the contrary, Verizon had only one star to promote and advertise until droid came into the race. And that was RIM's Blackberry. With Verizon's reach and customer base, the market of Blackberry was on the rise in the smart phone category. I would say that was the only smart phone sold by Verizon, there was no #2. And as you may know, Blackberry has traditionally been liked by enterprises due to its enterprise friendly features.

Now enters Droid in the market. As of today, Droid has been the #1 promotional item for Verizon. What does that mean? It means, it cuts into Verizon's budget for Blackberry. Isn't it? And Blackberry has become #2 for Verizon - so it slipped in the ranking. This will lead to slow down in the sale of Blackberry in the short term.

In the longer run, it would depend on the success of droid. If the Droid is able to live up its hype, then Blackberry has long term problems, unless and until RIM launches a more powerful, user friendly handset that outshines Droid. On the other hand if Droid dies its own hype, the Blackberry will bounce back. So, it all depends on how Droid is going to perform and live up to its early hype.

Please note this is my humble opinion that I am sharing via this blog. It has too many ifs and buts and no certainity.