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Will the Verizon iPhone Kill the Verizon Droid?

"" including run on Verizon's network. But the iPhone 4 can now do many of the things that Verizon commercial said it couldn't ... and now it's on Verizon alongside the Droid.

When the original iPhone became the must-have phone of 2007 -- and 2008, and 2009 and 2010 -- the fact that it was exclusive to AT&T in the U.S. sent other wireless carriers scrambling to catch up. And while they all turned to phones running Android, Google'ssmartphone operating system, it was Verizon that put the most effort into creating a competing brand: Droid, with a series of signature phones and a name that was licensed from Lucasarts.

Now that Verizon has the iPhone too, does that mean the Droid is dead? Probably not.

Free apps, whether you like it or not

When the iPhone came out on AT&T, it was released with no carrier branding ... no AT&T logo on the case, no bundled AT&T apps. Just a notice in the status bar reminding you whose wireless network you were connected to.

Compare that with theI bought last year, an Android phone on AT&T's network. Not only does it have an AT&T logo beside HTC's, on the front, but every time it boots up (as in turning it all the way off and then on again) it plays a loud sound effect along with AT&T's logo. It's also crammed full of AT&T apps that I don't want to use, but I can't uninstall them without "rooting" my phone, a complex technical procedure.

If you look at a Verizon Android phone compared to the Verizon iPhone, you'll see the same difference. Why do the wireless carriers do this?

Because they can

Unless you're Apple, making smartphones isn't an especially profitable business. Companies like Samsung and LG sell millions of cheap smartphones and try to "" while only a couple of manufacturers besides Apple make even a $50 profit per smartphone they sell. Add to that the lack of brand recognition that most smartphones have, and you begin to see why their manufacturers need the wireless carriers.

Because the manufacturers depend on them, the carriers can get away with anything. They can brand your phone on the outside, and they can fill it up with garbage apps, in the hopes that you'll use them and pay for their extra services.

The iPhone, however, is different. People ask for it by name. Apple knows the cachet that its brand has, so it is in a position to dictate terms to the carriers. And the carriers don't like this. They'd rather that Apple was begging them to sell their phones, the way other companies do.

The Upshot

The Droid is the best effort that anyone besides Apple has made at creating their own smartphone brand, that people recognize and ask for by name. Verizon needs the iPhone, but they also need the Droid, because without it they're playing on Apple's terms for all of their top-tier phones.

Are Apple's terms better than Verizon's terms? That may depend on who's asking ... the carrier, or their customers.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.