I was never the lazy student that gave "the dog ate my assignment" alibis.

I wrote an article stating 1,000 reasons why Motorola's Droid Bionic would beat the iPhone 4. The reasons started with a huge 4.3-inch display, Gorila Glass screen, rubberized battery cover, dual-core processor, 8-megapixel camera, 4G LTE, mobile hotspot, long battery life, WebTop application, ground-breaking enterprise apps, HDMI support and so on.

But that was in January, when Motorola touted a new device with amazing specs at a time when Nokia Oyj was still busy experimenting with the Meego, Samsung had yet to become a major player in mobile devices, and Apple's fifth generation iPhone was still months away.

But now, the Droid Bionic is finally available on shelves, more than EIGHT MONTHS after the device was unveiled. In the U.S., the Droid Bionic is available for $299 on a new 2-year contract with Verizon, or $599 at full retail.

This time, I could barely think of 10 reasons why it would defeat the iPhone. Even those reasons are disputable and may only be temporary as the iPhone 5 should debut in the coming weeks. And the Samsung Galaxy S 2 was launched in March this year in Europe and Asia (selling three million units in 85 days) and in September in the U.S.

Looking at the key features, it would be likely that the Droid Bionic will be the best smartphone for 30 days at the most, given that the highly anticipated Apple device will be out next month.

The Droid Bionic has these specs -- dual-core 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, and powered by Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread. But the Samsung Galaxy S 2, which was launched outside the U.S in March, has a dual-core chip 1.2 GHz processor. And in the coming weeks, there'll be the iPhone 5, which will have the A5 processor, which runs the iPad 2. Both the Motorola Droid Bionic and Samsung Galaxy S 2 run on Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread OS. The iPhone 5 will run on iOS 5, which already has a fall launch date. Had the Bionic been launched early this year, it would have easily beaten the iPhone and other smartphones, but at this time, its specs are only "descent."

Another issue would be the display. The Droid Bionic has a 4.3-inch qHD screen using scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass with dual-layer anti-reflective coating. The qHD provides a 540 x 960 pixel resolution and 256 ppi pixel density. Given that the iPhone 4 only had a 3.5-inch screen, the Droid Bionic could have lured customers finding difficulty typing or doing anything with iPhone's very small screen. In the coming weeks though, Apple will have an iPhone 5 with a 4-inch screen, making the screen size no longer a huge advantage for Motorola. Plus there's Galaxy S 2, which sports a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen with 800 x 480 screen resolution.

Motorola's Droid Bionic will be the first dual core smartphone to feature the 4G LTE technology. U.S. carrier Verizon says Bionic users can expect to fly across the Web on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network with download speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps in 4G LTE mobile broadband coverage areas. And of course, the Droid Bionic lets customers share their 4G LTE signal with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices when they activate the Verizon Wireless Mobile Hotspot. The present iPhones are shipped with standard HSPA, which is slower than the LTE standard. While it remains to be seen whether the iPhone 5 will have 4G LTE, it is unlikely that the Droid will beat the iPhone 5 on LTE alone.

The Droid Bionic promises a host of "groundbreaking applications and accessories that turn the device into a multimedia hub, a ruler of remote access, and a purveyor of virtuality." The phonec introduces, among others, ZumoCast by Motorola, which bring files stored on their computers to their handset via remote access. A Webtop application, a full-featured Firefox Web browser 4.0, email or documents can be beamed to a TV or monitor. The Droid Bionic has HDMI support. You can view pictures and videos on any HDTV or monitor by connecting the Droid Bionic to an HDMI cable. The iPhone 4 doesn't offer HDMI support. But iCloud is about to be launched soon, so connecting your iPhone 5 to other Apple devices and transferring or storing files would no longer be a problem.

The Droid Bionic has an 8-megapixel autofocus camera with flash and 1080p HD video capture Front-facing camera for video chat, plus a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) front camera. But the 8-megapixel camera is now the standard for most high-end phones. The Samsung Galaxy S 2 has a 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and a 2-megapixel camera in front for video calling. The iPhone 4 has a 5-megapixel back-side camera with 720p HD video camera. But the iPhone 4 is more than a year old. Reports say that the significant upgrades to the next iPhone include an advanced, 8-megapixel camera.

The Droid Bionic will be the last major device from Motorola before the company would have new owners: Google.
Yes, Google owning Motorola is a little awkward. Google has been providing the Android platform to Motorola's rivals HTC, Samsung, LG and others. With its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola, Google will now be a smartphone vendor directly competing with its Android partners.

Google has been said to be "forced" to buy Motorola primarily because of the latter's patent portfolio, which is needed to arm Google in lawsuits targeting the Android. But Google said it is committed to continue Motorola's handset business after the purchase. Google's entry changes Motorola's identity, and the pending sale would possibly delay the launch of new Motorola devices.