Amazon.com is now offering the HTC Droid Eris for the low price of $9.99. That's not too shabby considering before the holidays Best Buy offered the same device for $49.99. Keep in mind to get the price of $9.99 a new two-year contract with Verizon is needed.

Perhaps this is a sign that there are a few new Verizon Android devices right around the corner? 

Any takers?

One of our favorite hobbies these days is to collect statistical data about Android (we also collect spores, mold and fungus), and here's an interesting specimen from ChangeWave.

A survey of 4,068 people conducted Dec. 9-14 found that 21 percent of those planning to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days would prefer Android. That's 15 percentage points higher than in September -- the largest gain among the major smartphone operating systems. (RIM was the other winner, increasing 1 percentage point over September's survey.)

Other interesting facts:

• 13 percent said they'd prefer a Motorola Android phone, compared to 9 percent for an HTC phone. (In September, it was 5 percent for HTC versus 1 percent for Motorola. (Of course, that was before the Droid line was launched on Verizon.)
• Apple, RIM and Palm all saw declines in likely future purchases.
• Android was ranked second (72 percent) among customers who said there were "very satisfied" with their current cell phone. (iPhone 77 percent; BlackBerry 41 percent; Palm OS/webOS 33 percent; Windows Mobile 25 percent)

Check out the whole breakdown from ChangeWave.

It can't be all sunshine and kittens head of Tuesday's expected Google Nexus One launch. ZDNet has published a list of how much extra those of you outside of the United States will have to pay for the Nexus One -- on top of the $530 unlocked price. All we can say is that if you're in Sweden, well, start saving up, as you're going to have to shell out an extra $218. If you're in Taiwan (home of HTC, which is manufacturing the Nexus One), it's a meager $70. Full list of who has to pay what is after the break. [ZDNet]

Forget the phones. One of our first stops at CES this week is going to have to be with Touch Revolution, whose NIM1000 drop-in module is bringing Android to microwave ovens, washer/dryers/refridgerators ... OK, "bringing" may be a bit much at this point. But being able to stream Pandora while grabbing a cold one, heating up a burrito and cleaning the stains from both? You just can't beat that. [Presser via Gizmodo]

The Acer Liquid A1 apparently is on track for an Eclair update, according to a French Web site. Currently, the A1, which does not have carrier support in the U.S. but has been seen at the FCC, is running the Android 1.6 operating system. The upgrade would bring it to Android 2.0. The upgrade would be free, though there is no timetable listed. [Mobinaute via Phone Arena]

Those of us waiting for Spotify -- an online streaming music service that currently as available in Europe -- to arrive in the U.S. may get a pleasant surprise this week. Maybe.

Techcrunch patriarch Michael Arrington writes this morning that Spotify has reached deals with U.S. record labels -- as well as Google -- and could launch with the Nexus One.

Google wanted Spotify badly enough that they were willing to cover the label costs for every user of $3 – $4 per month. Spotify would add advertising on top of it, as they do with the free version in Europe, to make additional revenue. Without Google paying those label fees there was no way Spotify could handle the costs of the user flow that 2.1 would provide. Currently, European users must pay for Spotify Premium to use the mobile versions of the service.

Arrington later hedges his bets, saying he hasn't heard whether the deal actually was made, and that it "has likely gone cold." At which point the word "linkbait" starts floating through our un-caffeinated minds. But even if we don't see Spotify launch in the U.S. this week, we could well see it in the coming future. And that'll have to be good enough for now.

We're going to interrupt our CES prep on Tuesday for the Google press event, at which we expect the launch of the Nexus One. Join us!

According to NetApplications, mobile web browsing is now responsible for 1.3% of all internet browsing. 1.3% may seem like an insignificant number but it's nothing to laugh at. In the beginning of 2009, we saw mobile browsing only at around .5% which means we've nearly doubled mobile browsing in a year. How did this happen? Well we can thank Android for one.

Android mobile browsing spiked an impressive +54.8% in December (when compared to the previous month). We're guessing that one little Droid has something to do with it and finally being on a big-time, very reliable carrier like Verizon doesn't hurt at all either. With more Android phones in the world now, we're sure that Android mobile browsing will continue to grow. After all, 2010 is the year of Android.

How much time do you guys spend browsing the web on your Android phone as opposed to your computer?

[via electronista]

We guess Verizon finally realized their original method of fixing the faulty Motorola Droid battery cover wasn't going to cut it. After all, it was just a band-aid! This time around, they're actually offering new Droid battery covers to fix the issue, hopefully this set locks in better than what came with our Droids. It's currently out of stock, but hopefully they'll re-stock it soon since the battery cover has been the biggest design flaw in an otherwise wonderfully styled phone.

So who put in their order in time? We know a lot of you from the forums have!

big thanks to zandroid in our forums!

Last week was a good one as usual for SPE, but next week we'll be blowing the walls out for CES: expect plenty of CES coverage from all of our sites. This year we'll have our biggest team ever at the show and are pumped up. All that CES coverage means we'll be taking the week off from the Smartphone Round Robin (excepting another group podcast on The Cell Phone Junkie, stay tuned!).