Will the Motorola DROID Turbo 2 suffer the same fate as the Motorola DROID X2?

The last couple of days, we've heard more and more about a sequel to the heavily spec'd Motorola DROID Turbo. The DROID Turbo 2 appears on a list of upcoming Verizon phones that will be offered at Costco. The last thing that Motorola and Verizon want to do is repeat what happened with another DROID sequel, the Motorola DROID X2.

After the amazing success of the Motorola DROID made Android a household name, the next big handset powered by the OS was the Nexus One. The HTC built model took much of the spotlight away from Motorola. But three months after the Nexus One was launched, Motorola took the things that made the DROID so appealing and super-sized it. The Motorola DROID X was born carrying a massive (for the times) 4.3-inch screen, and was powered by a single-core 1GHz CPU. 512MB of RAM was inside and an 8MP camera was on back with a 1540mAh battery inside.

But the real kicker was the design. With a thin body that widened at the top to form a hump for the camera, the phone looked like nothing else in the market, but still was unquestionably a DROID. We gave the phone a well-deserved 9.5 when we reviewed the handset (read it here). Yet, less than a year later, the Motorola DROID X2 was launched and we gave the phone an 8. What changed that made us drop the score from an A+ to a C+? Practically nothing.

Motorola pretty much kept the DROID X2 the exact same as the DROID X. Yes, there were some changes made. The resolution of the 4.3-inch screen rose from 480 x 854 to 540 x 960, and the single-core 1GHz CPU became a dual-core 1GHz CPU on the DROID X2. But the battery, rear camera and amount of RAM remained the same, as did the dimensions of the phone. As a result, the DROID X2 didn't exactly race to the top of the sales charts.

But there is a lesson to be learned here by Motorola. They just can't stick a label with the number "2" on it next to the DROID Turbo name and assume that the phone is going to sell. There needs to be some real innovation. One part that needs some work is the front-facing speaker. And we would love to see the next Turbo offer an IP certification that would allow it to be submerged in a bowl of water, and escape unscathed. Currently, the nanocoating technology protects the phone from spills and light rain.

The most important thing that Motorola must do is not fall back into the trap that doomed the DROID X2. Sure, make the DROID Turbo 2 a phone that can quickly be identifiable as a DROID, but shake things up. Make current Droid Turbo owners so jealous of DROID Turbo 2 owners that they feel compelled to upgrade to the new phone even if they are only halfway through their two year contract.

Motorola did it once before. When the DROID X was first unveiled, Motorola DROID owners were as green as could be with jealousy. It should be very interesting to see if the company can repeat this with the next Turbo.