After having the new Motorola Droid for about a week, I've been very impressed with it’s features, usability, and experience.
Previously I was using a windows mobile phone, and as far as usability goes, Android is leaps and bounds better then even the latest (6.5) version of Windows Mobile.
Although, when I show my phone to an iPhone users, they generally complain about the lack of multitouch, especially in the web browser, and the on-screen keyboard. I think that feature alone will end up being a major sticking point when people talk about switching from the iPhone to the Droid.
As you may or may not know, the US version of the droid does not have multitouch in the apps that Google/Verizon distributes with the phone (including the browser and keyboard). The speculated reason why multitouch is not enabled in the US Droid is that apple’s patent on multi-touch that is not valid in Europe.
After some little research there is a app (PicSay) in the Google Marketplace that takes advantage of multitouch on a stock, unmodified US Droid for zooming pictures. So, it is true that multi-touch is supported and enabled in hardware, but not taken advantage in software.
My theory: multitouch is only disabled by configuration in the Android OS, and if one were able to root the US Droid they could re-enable multitouch with some simple configuration changes.
This assumes that Google uses the same distribution of apps for both US and Europe. Although, if that is not the case, one could alternatively copy the European ROM (or apps) to the US phone with a minimum of fuss.
I'm keeping my two fingers crossed for a root exploit in the near future, and the possibility of multitouch. At this point I think it’s probably too late in the game for Google/Verizon to change their minds about multitouch, though I hope they do. It would make the Droid a stronger competitor with the iPhone.
Also, Android Marketplace developers should be, or may already be working on a multitouch version of the on screen keyboard. An independent app could take advantage of multitouch, and wouldn’t require rooting the phone, so you could type with two fingers.
Update 12-08-2009:
Dolphin (A 3rd party web browser) that you can get in the marketplace supports multi-touch. Search for it in the marketplace, it's free.
Update 12-10-2009:
A root exploit for android 2.0 on the droid was found and after reading into it, it looks like the apps in question were complied without the multi-touch libraries. It should be a matter of re-compiling or coping multi-touch binaries.
Since dolphin exits, I think if someone were to make a multi-touch on-screen keyboard, people would not have much to complain about .
Update 01-29-2010:
This article is now out of date, but most people are just just downloading multi-touch apps and calling it good, though there are also some mutli-touch + root modifications you can do to the droid and nexus.
Update 04-16-2010:
Google has released multi-touch versions of many apps with Android 2.1