Verizon sold 100K Droids in first weekend
Motorola purportedly supplied Verizon with 200,000 units and an analyst estimates the carrier sold – its huge network and all – only half of those. This compares quite poorly with the 1 million iPhone 3GS’ Apple sold over the first weekend back in June, months before anyone was willing to say the recession was over.
Quoting Broadpoint AmTech analyst Mark McKechnie, Bloomberg reports that Verizon sold about 100,000 Motorola Droids over the first three days the smartphone was available, though he expects that the carrier will eventually sell 1 million in the fourth quarter and 10 million over the course of 2010.
“I see the first few days as encouraging,” said McKechnie. “There seems to be pretty good demand—they’ve taken the right steps and picked a good partner with Google on the Android side.”
Shares in Motorola rose 9 cents to $8.98 on the news even though the handset maker’s worldwide market share plummeted to 5.6 percent earlier this.
Not the droid people have been looking for
Meanwhile, Apple, which offers the iPhone in 77 countries around the world, is excepted to sell 8 million units this quarter and 28.5 million next year.
“I have this nagging suspicion that Android is being overestimated by technology enthusiasts,” said MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittinen, who advises investors sell Motorola shares. “They haven’t really resonated with average consumers.”
Thereupon, even if one compares initial sales of the Droid with those of the original iPhone — AT&T says it activated 146,000 in the first weekend, though analysts estimated at least 250,000 were sold — Motorola still comes up well short.
Yes, it’s still early days for the Droid, but so far the hype has greatly exceeded sales, not to mention Motorola and Verizon’s overly optimistic preparations of 200K units…
What’s your take?
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