Verizon Officially Announces Droid by Motorola for $199, Including Free Google GPS Navigation

Verizon’s smart phone lineup got a major shot in the arm today with the introduction of the carrier’s first Android phone. The Droid by Motorola boasts a huge 3.7-inch display, sliding design with full keyboard, and the ability to multitask. Plus, this is the first Android phone to run Android 2.0, which brings new features like a unified inbox and Quick Contact for deciding how you want to communicate with people in your address book (call, SMS, e-mail). Best of all, the new Google Maps Navigagtion (beta) is included with voice guidance with street name pronunciation–for free.

The device will go on sale Nov. 6 for $199 on a two-year contract. You don’t get the Motoblur goodness that’s found on the Cliq, like home screen widgets for Twitter or Facebook, but overall the Droid looks like it will be the most robust Verizon smart phone yet.

Other features include a Cortex A8 processor (running at a max of 600 MHz), Wi-Fi, DVD quality camcorder, a 5-MP camera, and 16GB of preloaded memory. You also get layers in Google maps, like Wikipedia, Traffic, and Transportation, as well as Latitude. Verizon is also playing up voice search, not just the Web but all sorts of data that’s stored on your device.

The device can run multiple apps simultaneously, and you cna toggle back and forth between multiple apps at once. There are now more than 10,000 apps in the Android Market. Interestingly, Verizon is not including any of its media services or VZ Navigator on this device, but those could be added early next year.