Verizon: Droid X smart phone coming July 15

SAN FRANCISCO — Verizon Wireless said Wednesday that it will begin selling the Droid X, the follow-up to Motorola Inc.'s popular Droid smart phone, on July 15.

Verizon, which made its announcement the day before Apple is set to start selling its latest iPhone, said the phone will cost $200 with a rebate and two-year wireless service contract.

The Droid X runs Google Inc.'s Android software and has a touch screen that is 4.3 inches diagonally and an 8-megapixel camera with a dual flash that can also record high-definition videos. It will also have an HDMI port so you can connect it to a TV and watch content stored on the phone on a bigger screen.

Verizon said that later this summer Droid X buyers will get the newest Android software, version 2.2. They will also get Adobe's Flash Player 10.1 for watching flash videos, something the iPhone cannot do.

Verizon added that the Droid will be the first of its smart phones to come with an application from movie chain Blockbuster Inc. that lets users rent or purchase movies on their phones. Movies will cost $4 to rent and start at $10 and up to buy, Verizon said.

The Droid X is part of Motorola Inc.'s cell phone comeback plan — the beleaguered handset maker had struggled for several years, failing to put out a successful follow-up to its popular Razr cell phone. More recently, the Schaumburg, Ill., company has focused its turnaround efforts on phones that run the Android software.

Verizon's announcement comes as Apple is preparing to start selling its newest iPhone, which has already seen a surge of interest, on Thursday. Apple and its partner companies started taking iPhone 4 orders on June 15, and the next day Apple said they received more than 600,000 orders in 24 hours — the highest number it has ever seen.

Demand was so high that the companies quickly stopped taking orders for shipment by June 24.