I got pissed off at my most recent Blackberry. When I heard that Motorola was introducing a hot new device based on Google’s Android and that it was designed for the Verizon network, I decided to dump the Blackberry Tour in favor of the new Motorola Droid.

All the press I’m reading compares the Droid to the iPhone. Wrong comparison, for a lot of reasons. I’m inclined to think that the Droid is the first phone to give RIMM a heartache for its Blackberry phones, but perhaps I’m just being persnickety.

First, the Droid: It works. Mossberg’s review and Pogue’s review do a great job of covering the details of the device, both good and bad. The bottom line is that it’s an amazing device. It’s kind of dorky, but Motorola will deal with that over time and the fact is that it’s a really differentiated position from the super-smooth iPhone. Droid is the first device, IMHO, to really deliver on the idea of Android as a smartphone operating system. With both Motorola and Google behind it, it has a good chance of being commercially successful.

Second, if it is, the question is really what is the Droid going to hurt? Not Apple. People who like the iPhone like the iPhone because it so amazingly well designed, stylish and cool. And it has all those cool apps. Apple is a company that has spent more than 30 years learning how to encourage application development, something that Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T will never figure out and that Motorola will figure out in another 30 years.

The Droid has Google figuring it out and Google is a little more nimble that than those old companies. So I’ve got the idea that Droid is going to sink the Blackberry. Motorola knows how to sell to enterprises. The Droid uses ActiveSync to support MS Exchange, and it seems to work as well as Blackberry Enterprise Server (or better, since it’s free and supported by Microsoft). The Droid has a much better approach to the application business (called Android Market on the Droid) than Blackberry. (My Blackberry, rest its soul asked me to confirm at least three times that I really did want that application and that I really did trust that application, before I could actually install and use it.)

Android Market is open and managed by Google. Whether to charge and how much is up to the app developer. The platform is well supported and easy to make software for. And it’s got its own dorky kind of coolness. So there’s a reasonable chance that Droid (and Android, by implication) will become the second stop for app developers after iPhone, and maybe the first stop for enterprise apps and for location apps that require a multitasking operating system.

Meanwhile, the Droid has anomalies. Its task management is funky, it does produce weird error messages, and sometimes it seems too busy to respond to the user. You need two hands to get the thing to wake up. Blah blah. But I don’t have a Blackberry for the first time in nearly 14 years.

The product has been well reviewed. I just wanted to point out what a great idea it is: Package WiFi and cellular modem in a little device you can carry in your pocket or purse. The product lets you take a WiFi hotspot with you and it works everywhere where’s a cellular signal. My MiFi is on Verizon so it happens to work almost everywhere in the US (except in the lobby of Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica, CA where I am right now). It worked when I landed this morning and took a taxi to the hotel. It works in my hotel room in Boulder or in Santa Monica (and I don’t have to pay the stupid fee for the hotel WiFi, which often doesn’t work). My particular MiFi came from Verizon, which also supplied my new Blackberry Tour (the upgrade from the 8830), so I got a deal where the MiFi was essentially free (it was an upgrade from my USB cellular modem). So I got a really cool product (well, it does get warm when it’s turned on) for free. Thanks, Novatel!

I got this email from a good friend, whom I’d prefer not to identify publicly. But I thought his sentiment was relevant to our current times so we decided to share it with you posthaste.

“Yesterday I ran into an old friend. As his hedge fund has tanked, he has lost 20 pounds (skinny to start with), is taking Valium every night to sleep, has night sweats and heart palpitations.

“He runs his own firm. He is the boss. But he is not a warrior. He is seeing disaster at every turn, rather than openings where he can attack. He is questioning himself and doubting his own fighting instincts, consumed with how his actions might be viewed, rather than taking swift and deliberate action. He is coddling wimps, instead of cutting loose those hindering his attack. He is acting like a frightened mother, not an inspired and powerful leader. Worst of all, he’s turned his fear and anger internally, against himself. When he needs to be strongest, he consumes himself with worry and purposeless actions.

“In the great heat and confusion of battle, you see men cower, become smaller, or retreat into some psychological refuge. Then you see the few who rise up out of the smoke and fire like an avenging spirit, usually with a mad gleam in their eyes and a slight determined smile, taking great pleasure in engaging a worthy enemy.”