Android 2.2 To Debut On Motorola Droid

Motorola confirmed that Google’s Android 2.2 operating system, or Froyo build, will be pushed out to the original Motorola Droid in the US beginning the week of August 2.

Motorola Forums Manager Matt wrote in a brief note on the company’s forum on 30 July: “I’m happy to report that Verizon Wireless will start pushing Android 2.2 (Froyo) to the original Droid by Motorola during the week of 2 August. Although I can’t confirm it yet, I would not be surprised if there were a push to some small number of users as a pre-launch test as early as tonight…”

Android 2.2

Motorola’s forum confirmation came just a day after Sprint said on its community blog that it would begin upgrading its popular HTC Evo 4G smartphone to Android 2.2 on 3 August.

In following Sprint’s announcement, Motorola clearly doesn’t want its smaller rival to bask in the glory of being the first wireless carrier to offer Froyo on a device, which is exactly what the No. 3 U.S. carrier touted in its blog post.

Both carriers were beat to the punch by Google, which began broadly pushing out the Froyo build to its Nexus One smartphone in June.

However, Motorola’s news about the Droid begs stirs up another question in the pot. With the Droid set to get Froyo this week, what about the Droid X?
Motorola and Verizon executives had promised the over-the-air upgrade by mid-August. Is that timeline still on track? eWEEK e-mailed Verizon for a response and will update when and if possible.

Faster Browser Performance

Verizon spokesman Albert Aydin told LA News Monitor Verizon would push out Froyo this week but did not specify what devices the No. 1 wireless carrier would upgrade.

Released to open source on 23 June, Android 2.2 includes faster browser performance, including a faster JavaScript engine, enterprise capabilities such as Microsoft Exchange support and a cloud-to-device messaging API.

Verizon offers the full documentation for Android 2.2 on the Droid here (via Engadget).