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By now we all know that the Motorola Droid is coming to Verizon this Friday, November 6th.  Verizon hasn’t been keeping many secrets about the Droid, aside from maybe the fact that Droid is looking to be a full brand rather than just one phone.  A leaked document found by Engadget is pointing to a new phone, the Droid Eris, which is made by HTC and is set to be released on the same day.

The Droid Eris appears to be a repurposed model of the HTC Hero.  It features the same Sense UI as well well as the exact same specs as the Hero.  The only real difference comes in the phone’s body, carrier and price.  While the Hero sells on Sprint for $180 (after rebates), the HTC Droid Eris will be sold by Verizon for $99 after a $100 mail-in rebate.  Given the price point it’s obvious that Verizon views it more as the lesser model to the Motorola Droid.  The phone does have a less powerful processor, a lower resolution screen, no hardware keyboard and runs on Android 1.5 as compared to 2.0 on the Droid so that viewpoint does make sense.

The only real downside to the Droid Eris being on Verizon at such a (relatively) low price-point is that Sprint HTC Hero owners might feel bad about spending the extra $80 on what is essentially the same phone.  Verizon could be missing a big point in not marketing the Droid Eris if it is coming in on the same day as the Droid.  True, the focus is (and should be) on the Droid, but that doesn’t make the Sense UI any less desirable to many people.  It’s clear that Verizon is really getting the Android platform and pushing the newer features, which is definitely a welcome move.

Via [Engadget]