Analyst estimates 100,000 DROID smartphones sold in first weekend
By Darren Murph 
posted Nov 10th 2009 9:12AM
posted Nov 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.
Storm sold 100.000 in first weekend.
Pre sold 100.000 in first weekend.
It's only a success in Motorola's standard.
This estimate is way off the actual mark.
Motorola sold 100,000 to Verizon, who in turn sold about 100 to actual people.
Does that even pay for 30 seconds of their tv ads?
My Dad just ordered one. Next thing you know it he will be on facebook.
Actually, in 4 days Motorola Droid sold 100,000 units. Release date 6 November 2009 and now 10 November 2009.
This isn't reported sales by Motorola, this is analyst estimates based on actual sales in stores. No surprise here, the Apple faithful are all over every Droid story ready to pounce and try and knock anything that could possibly be perceived as positive. It is amazing how threatened these folks seem to be. Their desperation seemingly going against their perceived superior claims.
Well fanboi kinda do these things, in case you haven't heard.
We are hyper sensitive and I believe that's exactly what engadget expect of us, hence the "iPod sucks" text in the Zune HD title picture.
The editors would probably have panic attacts should one day all the Apple fanbois Google fanbois Microsoft fanbois just disappear from their site.
In over 3 days period, Droid was estimated sold 100,000 units, we all know iPhone 3GS launched with 10x score. That's too obvious. But mind you iPhone sold 7.4M last quarter and seeing 8M this holiday season, which means over the same period past weekend, an average 260,000 units of iPhone just got in consumers' hands - that's 2.5x of Droid's sales and the reality here.
All in all. Droid is the best phone on Verizon, but waaaay over-hyped.
Where did you read that this was based on store sales? ...Or did you just pull that out of your Droid.
@AdmiralKlingon You speak the truth, but I find it amazing that they seem to be spending so much energy on the hating, as opposed to just talking up their own favorite device. I don't knock anybody for loving what they have, the passion for it is great whether I agree with it or not... it is the trolling hatred that confounds me so.
@8r13n - Well that would be the line that reads, "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." Which you would have seen if you had actually read the story as opposed to just rushing in to try knock it.
@AdmiralKlingon: take note, iphone is selling 7.4M/Q internationally on GSM networks. They sell phones in Bolivia and Lichtenstein. Droid launched in the US on a CDMA network this weekend. Also, take note, Motorola is currently rocking 2 Android handsets. Samsung is releasing number 2 any day now. Acer 1 by month's end. Dell 1. HTC 3 (plus multiple iterations of the Hero), Sony 1. The idea of comparing one handset to the iPhone is ridiculous as the iPhone is the only handset that runs that platform. Your only choices are 8, 16, or 32 GB. The manufacturing might of the firms developing for Android will make it a dominant platform in a jiffy; manufacturer customizations to the UI will make so many colors of Android available, it will make an ipod shuffle commercial look monochromatic. Apple will remain a niche player in everything but iPods indefinitely.
P.S. lots of Android phones in attendance at Jay-Z in Austin tonight.
(written on a MBP, connected to an airport extreme)
@Noah
I don't get the one million flavor of skettles thing
I can see a few or maybe a dozen handset running the same OS each with its distinctive SKU.
But the way Android is heading doesn't look attractive to me. Too messy, too complicated, too much overlap.
You can round the G1 Magic Hero Droid Eris X10 all up, and compare it to the iPhone sales number world wide, I don't care.
All I'm saying is Droid is not as successful as the iPhone, it's not even comparable.
And Android platform is not "there" yet, despite all the cheering and praising.
Why do I care? I want another platform to be "there", besides iPhone.
And 75,000 returned due to confusing OS and clunky form factor.
Ha! I'm 2 Android phones removed from 3 straight iPhones. I still have an iPhone. I use it as an iPod Touch for the car. I grew weary of 6 presses to get to the wi-fi settings (or bluetooth, or brightness, or call forwarding, or ...), and that banged up network. Oh, and take note: when iPhone version one came out it shipped without 3G, A2DP, 3MP camera, video, App Store, multiple home screens, Exchange, and I'm sure I'm missing more than it was. These functions were all readily available in Windows Mobile, Sony-Ericsson and Blackberry phones at the time. Do you remember adding those sh*tty webapp favicons to your homescreen because Apps would never exist on the iPhone? : ] Do you remember begging your MIS manager to allow IMAP email from Exchange because that was the only way you could get your work email? Ooooh ooooh oooooh, what about setting up a sketchy SMTP account for sending those messages because receiving IMAP was only half the battle? The iPhone put a sexy shell and interface on a relatively unsophisticated device and both techies and retards bought in.
Technology laggards are always being out-evolved and are always resentful of change. The one good thing for the iPhone is that these badass Android and Maemo devices will force them to up their game and maybe add some innovative hardware and functionality to their beautifully vapid souls.
wow the apple fanboism is sickening. Even iphone diehards should be cheering on the droid platform since it's mere existence as the first true competitor to the iphone will put pressure on Apple to roll out with more impressive innovations on their upcoming products. They'll be forced to address some of the shortcomings on the "idont" marketing campaigns, and hopefully add more features that they've been holding out on like removable memory/batteries, higher res, etc. Not that the 3gs is a bad phone, but would you really be happy if Apple did the same thing next year and said "Ta-da welcome the 4gs, no new features, but it's Faster!" Yay... :P
I'm quite disappointed to be honest.
One would think with Google's resource, it could make a much polished OS but no.
Feature wise I really don't care too much, everything goes as the technology advance.
But I think there are still a few quirks in the current iPhone OS I'd like Apple to address i.e. the E-mail app and the podcast management etc. But nobody is pushing Apple on the UI and usability front, really. Except notification system and little others.
I had high hopes for webOS but soon find out it's severely flawed, it will never be as responsive and powerful on the same hardware as iPhone, not in the foreseeable future that is.
I still have high hopes for the Android, but I need google to get it together and truly make a "perfect phone" as in superior in every possible way than the iPhone sans iTunes ecosystem. Trust me, to make such a device happen, feature is the easiest part.
I will probably be returning mine.
It sucks because this phone is really f-ing sweet. It is fast as hell, the phone sound quality is awesome, I love Android, the screen on this thing is sick and the phone has a comforting, "hefty" feel to it; I even like the much-maligned keyboard, though I originally was wishing they had gone more Razr-esque with the keys.
The deal-breaker is the camera. I don't know what the hell Motorola did with this thing, but I cannot get it to focus at all. Mine also has the "clicking" noise some people have reported when trying to focus. I went back to the store and the tech un-boxed two replacements that had the same problem. What's worse, I have not seen any kind of acknowledgment of the issue from Motorola or from Verizon.
I am going to hold on to this thing until my month is almost out, but if the issue isn't fixed by then it's going back. I am kind of bummed, because this phone has everything I need and want beyond the camera. I guess if it comes down to that I'll check out the Eris and, if it's too much of a step down from the Droid, think about going on to another network.
I am still keeping my fingers crossed that they will release a fix soon.
I just returned my Eris, absolutely loved the device, except for a little thing called battery life. The device had possibly the worst battery life of any phone I've ever had...this include the Palm Pre!
That can probably be fixed through a simple software update. And even if it can't be fixed, If that is the only thing you don't like about the phone I would think it would be worth living with that minor issue for the rest of the phone's positives.
Two of my coworkers showed up with Moto Droids yesterday and I spent some time playing with one. It's a very functional phone that's not as easy to use as the iPhone, but has a keyboard AND uses the better Verizon network. Who cares if it only has 10k apps, I only used 26 apps on my iPhone and most of them only rarely. I think moto has a winner.
Let's just appreciate the good work instead of comparing Motorola's sales with the rest. Every company has a phase to go through and I think Motorola will make a good contribution to the smart phone market.
well Moto did it, Android OS is really great, if moto comes with more than 10 devices next year, they really will be in a very good position
This supports my point perfectly - of the few people in this thread raving about the Android platform is someone named "Admiral Klingon"
That should show you where the sales are coming from. Women (which are 50% of the smartphone market) will panic because the OS is far from intuitive - actually confusing as hell. And geeky as hell.
Go ahead and rate this negative but if you want success, you have to appeal to the MAJORITY...and trekkies and nerds represent only a small fraction of the population - thank god.
So if the OS is "clunky and geeky as hell" wouldn't you say it is wise that they only market the phone to the "geeky as hell" crowd?
Mind, you I do not agree with you, just because something isn't done "Apple's way" doesn't make it any less usable. Sure, if you are used to doing something one way, it takes a learning curve to learn something new, that is true of any paradigm shift.
Who would have though just 3 years ago, that flipping threw pages and pages of icons (because there is not single central repository for them) to find the app you wanted to start was "intuitive"? Or that we would have very powerful phones that could only do one task at a time? I guess that is intuitive... if you have a one track mind.
The iPhone was a good starting point into finally making SmartPhones useful again after years of Stagnation at the hands of RIM and WinMo... but the world does not stop there.
I said the Android platform if far from intuitive...geeky, confusing, and clunky...and appeals to a small fraction of society.
I never mentioned the iPhone in that post. Funny how people instantly picture the iphone when they think "simple, intuitive, mass appealing, and un-clunky.
wow. I think we have a winner.
QUOTE - "So if the OS is "clunky and geeky as hell" wouldn't you say it is wise that they only market the phone to the "geeky as hell" crowd?"
Yes. I would agree. So they are infinitely wise in creating a product that only appeals the .05% of society...and marketing to them in $100m ad campaign..
Good job Google/Verizon/Motorola. You have a great product which will seize huge amounts of market share.
For a phone designed by a moribund hardware company, sold by the US's most ham-fisted, money-grubbing provider, which-moreover, stubbornly clings to the world's least common channel-access methodology and the highest rates... a phone which saw only 30 days of advertising (vs 6 months or more for a typical iPhone intro), after the carrier dropped their longtime ad agency 60 days before launch... and considering the Droid stands as a brand new and wholly independent product, rather than as a targeted adjunct/extension of an existing line of top-selling retail products (iPod, iTunes, etc).
If Droid's opening weekend hit 100,000, that's great. If it hit 400,000 (as is now being reported), that's absolutely staggering.