Analyst estimates 100,000 DROID smartphones sold in first weekend
By Darren Murph 
posted November 10th 2009 9:12AM
posted November 10th 2009 9:12AM
The lines may have been subdued, but one way or another, it sounds as if Motorola managed to sell quite a few DROIDs over the weekend. According to analyst Mark McKechnie at Broadpoint AmTech, the outfit managed to move around 100,000 of 'em during the opening weekend, with most stores moving at least half of their original shipments. He also estimated that Moto would sell one million Android-based phones in Q4 2009 alone (which includes the CLIQ, obviously), and that he viewed the first few days as "encouraging." It's been a long, long while since we've been able to say this, but hey -- nice job, Motorola.
Total Assets 226,404
Total Liabilities 183,218
Net Income 1,176
Values in millions. I guess your definition of deeper in debt is different than mine. There are plenty of service providers that are in debt right now btw so you had a decent shot of being right you just weren't.
Knows 3 people in my office alone that dropped AT&T for Verizon this weekend. If you dont think people want this you need to get a grip.
I'm surprised you bothered, considering it doesn't come on any Apple products.
Thats great news. I wasn't ready to see Motorola die. ....Maybe I still have some feelings left over from my first gen RAZR. But we all knew that relationship "Wouldn't work out".
Didn't Palm sell only 75K Pres the first week?
> Didn't Palm sell only 75K Pres the first week?
No one except Palm and Sprint know how many Pres have been sold - any timeframe - and they're not telling.
The best estimates of REAL sell-through - sell-through to actual end-consumers - for the first weekend of Pre sales is as you say.
Note that Palm does NOT report REAL sell-through - their definition of "sell-through" is "those we have sold to have sold" rather than "sales to end consumers". this is particularly important w.r.t. the Pre because Sprint was the entity that sold to BestBuy, Radishack, and Walmart.
So, in other words, this is the "Shipped vs. Sold" debate that plagues video game sales.
I remember all the sad Motorola faces that used to show up on this site. I'm definitely happy for them now. This may not be anywhere as successful as the RAZR was back in the day but they have proven that they can hang with today's demands.
I guess they're finally playing "Taps" for Motorola. It's tough watching another long-established American company closing it's doors. Goodbye and farewell.
AWB
Let's see the actual cost of the phone is about $550.00. So 100,000 phones in one weekend made them about $55,000,000. How is this fail?
@ Sea Urchin. No1 knows for sure but sources had it at 50k. http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/08/palm-moves-50-000-pre-smartphones-in-opening-weekend/
And considering the Fact that Verizon has twice as many subscribers as Sprint, you would have to call it pretty even. And it was the 1st ever showing for WebOS. Android has had time to grow and build up Hype.
To early to say if this will be failure of the level of ZuneHD or Palm Pre but I am waiting to hear directly from Verizon:
" x number of Motorola Droid handsets were sold/ activated in y days".
"Of that number z% were new subscribers to Verizon".
So far no numbers ....... obvious intervals are 3, 7, 30 days and then CY 2009
Of course Verizon has framed their marketing campaign as primarily as a network vs network pitch, I imagine it is more about making current Verizon customers feel good about their network and resisting the temptation to jump networks to get the new toy....
The Droid Eris is not a Motorola phone
I was thinking that same thing...
"...which includes the CLIQ and DROID Eris, obviously..."
Apparently the Eris was a bit too obvious for its own good, and was caught in a case of mistaken identity. How tragic.
I'm glad I didn't have to be the corrective asshole in this situation.'
But I would've if I had to...I mean...it's the internet...it's our job.
Don't be stupid, the 100K figure is for Motorola alone. Analysts don't put together figures for sales of an operating system, they do it for sales for companies. "Droid" here refers only to the single Motorola Droid product.
I wonder how many CLIQs they sold... OP says they are estimating 1mil Droids and Cliqs by the end of the year.
And yes, I wonder how many Eris's were sold: I would not be surprised if they sold more--it's a really nice phone that the best bang for the buck today.
Uhhhh...it "obviously" doesn't include the Eris since that's made by HTC, not Motorola.
And queue the "They didn't sell 1 million so they fail" posts from Word and the likes in 3...2...1...
But that's a good number. Glad to see Motorola back in action.
You almost let me down. It wouldn't have been a post if you didn't show up.
Word...you are an amazingly compliant tool.
Between the big headlines for the iPhone sales, I just want to clear up some of the obfuscated facts.
Original iPhone (2007) opened first weekend sales in the US only. (Apple reported to have SHIPPED 270K units first weekend.)
iPhone 3g (2008) opened first weekend sales in 21 nations. (Apple sold about 400K units in the US first weekend, 1M worldwide.)
iPhone 3GS (2009) opened first weekend sales in 8 nations. No one bothers to break down US sales anymore, and Apple does not separate out sales by region. Go figure.
Seems like the Droid is doing quite fine, released just in the US.
They didn't even *sell* 100,000, if you're taking that word to mean "sold to an actual end user". From Motorola's perspective, selling a Droid means that it's no longer in their hands. They've moved over 100,000 Droid units into the channel, but if it's like many overhyped launches, a lot of those are probably on shelves, and in storage.
Let the sales comparisons begin!
...I suddenly have an impulse to... Like... Motorola!?
brb, seizure.
In all seriousness, it's good to see Motorola producing some nice phones (and in turn, sales figures) again. I hope they can keep it up with more awesome Android devices.
i've tried many times in the past to actually like motorola, but i can honestly say i hate motorola. i've had quite a few mobile phones from these guys and i can also honestly say they have been, without any doubt, the WORST phones i've ever owned. can anyone actually say that, after having used one of their phones for a few months or even a year or two that they were glad that they purchased it? i don't know if this droid is a good phone or not but it sure had better be because i'm pretty sure i'm not the only one out there who won't be buying anything motorola until they have proved they can do much better.
Yeah, the Star Tac was money, and the iDEN phones were pretty nice if you needed something rugged. The UI has always been the albatross around Moto's neck; and now that they are pushing Android, I think they can make a solid recovery.
The Razr was a good phone for its era and suited me just fine until I got sand in it :(
Motorola dead? I currently use a Q9C and love it. The RAZR became a good bang-for-buck phone once it became cheap/free on plans, after the hype died down, and once you add an extended battery to it.
Why would moto count the droid eris? Doh.
Hoping for mine to come in today!
Gotta say that I love my Droid. It's much better looking in person that in pictures. And it's a great pick-up line for bars: "Is that a Droid in your pocket?"
OMG! Mine went off in a lounge the other night and that's the exact question the girl I was talking to asked me. Lol.
hey, that's exactly why i buy all my electronics, so i can pick up on chicks in bars. who cares if the phone sucks or not as long as it helps you get a half unconscious chick in the sack. this backfired on me once though when i took my mbp to the local starbucks. instead of drunk chicks making the first move i had a half dozen or so dudes in turtle-necks and wide rim glasses checking out my ass.
Pretty sure Eight doesn't have to worry about picking up chicks at all.
@ johnson
right you are. if i want to pick up on semi-hot drunk chicks i'll use the advice i gave above. however, if i don't want to go through the hassle and just want a quick, easy, bag-over-the-head lay then all i have to do is give your mama a ring...it's a sure deal every time.
@EIH8T
....Yeah. Just walking up and talking to them is always good too, but im sure this works so much better.
What's with all the h8, EIH8T?
Why would moto count the droid eris? Doh.
ah ha the shitty comment system has deemed your mistake terrible enough to force a double post on my behalf!
Well.. that 100,000 units prolly should cover the costs of half those verizons Droid ads lol... But good to see Motorola back in the Game.. I have a feeling that the Motorola Cliq will do alot better than the Droid just cause of that new interface..
and the cost of opening locations earlier, salaries for the employees that opened earlier, etc.... ?
spin it any way you want, and feel free to vote me down, but my guess is that verizon was hoping to sell AT LEAST a few hundred thousand more.
i wouldnt necessarily call it a failure, but it definitely wasnt a success. they are still in the hole a ton of money from just the advertising and prep for its launch.
@Microdot
They only shipped 200,000. So, at best they could have only sold about 100,000 more (assuming this sales estimate is accurate). Plus, this was a US-only launch. And there was almost no main-stream fanfare before launch (the ads that actually show the device haven't even started hitting the airwaves yet). Sure WE knew about it, but I can assure you few non-techies knew about this device before the weekend. I'm sensing more are becoming aware as I'm hearing plenty of my (non-techie) friends and people at work talking about it.
I don't know what Verizon's marketing plans were, or if they intended to completely sell everything out, but from how they're launching these ads, it seems like this was more of a softer launch. Perhaps they're hopping to generate buzz first and make up sales later. Viral marketing first, and then more main-stream later?
All that being said, I don't know how you can call 100,000 in 1 weekend a failure. Sure it wasn't iPhone 3GS worldwide sales from this summer, but it certainly was very good. I'm interested to see how the Q4 numbers play out.
Analysts are already saying this Droid is the new ROKR. Abysmal Droid sales for the first weekend are the final nail in the coffin for what was once a top U.S. company. Motorola may hope to sell a million before the year's end, but it's likely they'll only sell half that amount even if they catch an economic tail wind for the holidays. If that's the best that Motorola and Android has to offer, then the Android platform is no better than the Pre which also failed to move a significant amount of product. There is absolutely nothing compelling for people to buy a Droid. Even with all the Verizon hype, the Motorola Droid failed to excite buyers. The buzz that turned in a whimper.
Chalk up another failure for Verizon and the once mighty Motorola. Even Palm's share price didn't start eroding so quickly when sales numbers didn't live up to expectations as Motorola's share price is. Motorola investors smell another stinker smartphone and are closing their noses and wallets in turn.
@AvgWB:
Okay, let's see some of those "experts" comments. Links, please. Or are all of your so-called "experts" on the Cupertino payroll?
You like iPhone, we get it. But your choice does not equal everyone else's. You and word (and all the other iTards) need to get a life...and not the kind that comes in a box adorned with a chrome-colored fruit.
I love my Droid. Android has definitely made some competitive improvements in the jump in point release.
I need to play around with one of those before I'd consider ditching my iPhone for one. Then again, I wouldn't really want to get another EV-DO device with LTE stuff being as close as it is.
You really think they're going to do a full rollout of LTE in the next year or so? I highly doubt that.