HTC Droid Incredible Complete Round Up ~ Pre-Orders on Monday

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This is a mash-up of everything that’s been breaking about the HTC Droid Incredible, which will soon be crowned the best Android-of-the-month. I promise this will be my last post on the HTC Droid Incredible…

…until this baby is available for pre-order!  Pre-orders on Verizon Wireless begin Monday, April 19th. In all likelihood, this means 12:01 a.m. Sunday night. The phone will be released in-store on April 29th. It will be priced at $199 for a new 2 year customer after a $100 mail-in rebate. With a New-Every-Two discount, this phone can be snagged at a bargain price, $99. However, if you are not due for an upgrade, get ready to shell out some serious cash for your HTC Droid Incredible. According to screenshots from Best Buy’s inventory system, the unsubsidized price for the phone will be $599.

I have to hand it to Verizon’s creative team and their P.R. agency. Over the past few months, they have slowly built up tremendous interest in this phone by leaking a few photos here and there and a blurry YouTube video several months ago. I’ll go out on a limb here and make a prediction: this phone will shatter initial smartphone sales records. Heck, the current record is held by the Motorola Droid. While the Motorola Droid did debut turn-by-turn Android navigation and it was backed by a massive $100 million advertising campaign, the stealthy P.R. behind this phone, the pre-order system and the predictable barrage of television ads will help push this phone over the top.

Verizon has come clean and issued a full press release on the HTC Droid Incredible. This is the release in its entirety (more comments follow):

IT’S A DROID, IT’S INCREDIBLE, IT’S ON THE NATION’S LARGEST AND MOST RELIABLE 3G NETWORK

DROID Incredible™ by HTC Combines Power of Android™, Usability of HTC Sense™, Exclusively from Verizon Wireless

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and NEW YORK – Verizon Wireless today announced DROID Incredible by HTC, the newest Android device on the nation’s most reliable wireless 3G network, will be available beginning April 29.

DROID Incredible by HTC features the newest version of the HTC Sense experience, a seven-panel home screen with a wide selection of interactive widgets so the most important content is immediately available at a touch.  Customers will enjoy seamless integration with Exchange ActiveSync^®, quick and easy access to Flickr for sharing and viewing pictures, video, and Android Market™ with more than 30,000 Google applications.  DROID Incredible by HTC is the first Verizon Wireless phone that takes advantage of Qualcomm’s 1GHz superfast Snapdragon processor, and it’s the first available phone from Verizon Wireless to include an 8 megapixel camera.

Additional Key features:

• Android 2.1 with HTC Sense experience
• 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ processor for maximum responsiveness
• Friend Stream for unified Flickr, Facebook and Twitter updates
• “Leap” view for quick access to all seven home screen panels
• 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash for crisp, detailed images
• Razor-sharp 3.7 inch WVGA (480×800) AMOLED capacitive touch display
• Optical joystick for smooth navigation
• Dedicated, touch-sensitive Home, Menu, Back and Search keys
• Proximity sensor, light sensor and digital compass
• Integrated GPS
• Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
• 3.5 mm headset jack

Price and availability:

• DROID Incredible will be available for pre-order online at www.verizonwireless.com beginning on April 19 and it will be in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on April 29.  Pricing will be $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.  Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted.
• DROID Incredible customers will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk and an Email and Web for Smartphone plan.  Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 monthly access.  Email and Web for Smartphone plans start at $29.99 for unlimited monthly access.
• For additional information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

I posted up a video of what the latest Sense UI looks like and it shows “Leap” View in action, which I referred to as pinch-zoom navigation. I noticed that the rumors of Wifi N appear to be untrue. As I wrote, I wasn’t sure that Wifi N on a phone would be a meaningful upgrade from Wifi G. The press release refers to “unlimited monthly access” on the data plans but I believe the data plans carry a 5 GB cap to discourage rooting, tethering and leeching massive amounts of data. Regardless, this will be the best smartphone on the best 3G network… an awesome combination.

Well played, Verizon and HTC. Kudos to you.

UPDATE: Pre-Orders Live: http://phones.verizonwireless.com/htc/incredible/

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