It look like those Feb. 10th DROID 4 launch rumors were true. Verizon has finally announced the DROID 4 and it will be hitting shelves this Friday for the reasonable price of $199 with a two-year agreement. The DROID 4 caters to those who still prefer a physical keyboard and features a a five-row QWERTY keyboard with edge-lit keys. It’s by far the most powerful QWERTY keyboard and runs on Verizon’s fast 4G network.

It should come as no surprise that Samsung is inking deals to build an OLED display stronghold, considering OLED display revenues are expected to reach more than $20 billion by 2018. Teaming up with Corning, the makers of Gorilla Glass, Samsung plans to combine their OLED display expertise with Corning’s new Lotus Glass substrates. These new displays should then find their way into the next generation of Galaxy devices as well as TVs and more.

In what seems to be a match made in palette heaven, Redbox has found itself a red partner to help expand its video entertainment business into the digital world. Verizon and Redbox have announced a joint venture to combine the famous Redbox new release rentals with content-rich video on-demand streaming. This new venture will package all the services together for an undisclosed subscription price, with hopes of competing against other video subscription services like Nextflix.

A study by The NPD Group, a leading market research company, provided us with some interesting Q4 statistics. On the obvious side of things, the number of smartphones sold in Q4 were up, with Android and iPhone accounting for over 90% of those sales. While you probably didn’t need a study to tell you that iOS and Android lead the smartphone market, I bet you weren’t aware that Android was actually a favorite among first time buyers.

Google is working on a “secret project” that must need some product integrity as they’ve hired Apple senior director of product integrity Simon Prakash. Simon has worked for Apple for over eight years and is responsible for helping Apple remain top among product quality. This seems to be the first time Google has hired such a senior-level person directly from Apple, and this would certainly put the kibosh on any agreement Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs may have had regarding poaching employees.