The new Droid Eris, Motorola’s answer to the iPhone, has been one of the most popular Verizon phones sold locally so far in 2010.

And that’s good news for East Metro Cellular, the local Verizon seller in Covington and the surrounding cities of Conyers, Eatonton, Madison and Monticello.

East Metro opened in Covington in 2000, and since that time owner Paul McGill has strategically expanded coverage in the east Atlanta market.

Although Covington and some other cities have corporate Verizon stores, Sales Representative Philip Hendrix said one benefit of visiting East Metro’s stores is the quick, personalized service. Customers don’t have to sign in when they visit an East Metro store.

In addition to the quick service, East Metro carries a full line of Verizon phones. Hendrix said the Droid is so popular because it’s a next line smart-phone and people are constantly looking for new and better data usage tools.

"The design of the phone sets it apart. Plus it has full touch-screen capability and a full qwerty keyboard, more options for data entry," he said. "It has Google Android software so anyone can develop apps for it; it’s more open. And the image quality of the screen is great; it has twice the amount of pixels as previous smart phones."

The Droid is $199, after a $100 rebate and two-year activation.

The Blackberry line of phones was one of the biggest sellers in 2009 and remains popular in January.

East Metro also has special deals on the LG enV3, $49.99 after $50 mail-in rebate and 2-year activation, and the Samsung Intensity u450, $19.99, after $50 mail-in rebate and 2-year activation.

Verizon also continues to promote its unlimited plans and has reduced prices on unlimited talk, talk and text and data plans.

Unlimited talk for a single line is $69.99 per month, and unlimited text and talk is $89.99.

For the Family plan, unlimited talk is $119.99, unlimited talk and text is $149.99. Additional lines, up to 3 extra, are $49.99 per month.

Unlimited data packages, which are becoming much more popular as smart phone numbers increase are $29.99 per month. Hendricks said other plans charger per megabyte or per 25 megabytes, so the unlimited plan is great for business users. Manager Kelly Queen said the plan is also good for frequent social users.

"It’s for anyone who wants that instant access to e-mail and the internet. A lot of people use it for Facebook and other social sites," Queen said.