And we're live! We're here a good hour early, and... well, we're the first ones. Verizon and co. are still getting set up.
The main event starts in a bit over an hour, at 10 AM Pacific (1 PM Eastern) - tune back in then for the show!
We're still waiting to get in. In the mean time, a bit of news: It's totally unconfirmed, but we just got a last minute report that Verizon is doing their damnedest to ensure the Droid X (which we expect to be announced here) is the first handset to ship with Android 2.2
Yep, positively confirmed: this announcement is going to be for the Droid X. They're doing last minute preparations right now, and we spotted a banner bearing the handset and logo. It might be for the Droid 2, as well, but the Droid X is definitely going to be the focus.
We're in, seated, and WiFi'd
The event is scheduled to start in about 15 minutes, we're just waiting for everyone to file in.
It's a pretty small gathering, in a pretty small venue. All of the seats are filled, with most of the Bay Area's tech-minded folks making an appearance.
A verizon rep has entered the stage just to let us know that things are running a bit late.
It's 10 o'clock - right when we expected things to go live. Don't worry, we're still here.. the show's just not started yet.
We just got word that some of the involved executives are chatting away on CNBC right now. Could that be why they're running late? Quite possibly. (And by that, I mean probably.)
We're still waiting for it to start. I'm going to fill the awkward silence with pictures.
We're still waiting.. but here's the schedule, as was just passed to us:
10 AM (pft): John Stratton, Executive VP and CMO of Verizon
followed by Andy Rubin, VP Engineering at Google
then Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola
Followed by Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe, then a Q&A session.
Sorry for the delays, folks; the event was supposed to have started 10 minutes ago. Nothing yet.
They just finished on CNBC -- and sure enough, the 10 minute warning sign just went up.
If you've seen my live blogs before, you've heard me complain before: companies play the Black Eyed Peas at every. single. press conference. This one included. At least it's not "I got a feelin'".
Humorously, the song is "Lets get it started." Couldn't have said it better myself.
We're hearing an audio stream come out the presentation speakers; apparently we'll be watching much of the presentation through a satellite stream from New York. A rep in New York is letting us know that the show is about to start, and further confirms that this is all about the Droid X.
John Stratton is introducing everyone on stage, mentioned below.
He's quickly recapping Verizon's Droid strategy
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, just showed up as a "Surprise guest"
Schmidt: Why is everyone so obsessed with mobile? It's because it's a new and emergent technology, a new way of computing, that we haven't seen before
Schmidt is simply recapping what everyone brought to the table; Google's software platform, Motorola's engineering, etc. Nothing specific yet.
"We're not announcing one product -- we are, and its one amazing product -- but what we're really announcing is the sum of it all" ("it all" being Moto's work, Google's work, etc.)
A slide just came on: "The droid X... expands our comittment to mobile video"
Comes with: Blockbuster (for renting/buying films), VCast video, NFL Mobile, Skype, and a Back-up assistant
Stratton continues to recap the bundled software; he moves on to NFL Mobile.
Sanjay Jha is entering the stage.
"We're going to deliver an unparalleled experience. This is our 11th smartphone, after we announced our first one just around a year ago"
"By 2011, 50% of devices [in customers hands] will be smartphones"
