While Verizon and Motorola have not disclosed any information on how the Verizon DROIDs fared over their debut weekend, a market analyst Mark McKechnie at Broadpoint AmTech Inc. has estimated sales at over 100,000 units. While this does not come anywhere close to rivaling the one million iPhone 3GS sold in its debut weekend, demand appears to be strong and steady. Keep in mind as well that the iPhone 3GS made its debut simultaneously in a number of countries whereas the DROID is only sold in one.
“I see the first few days as encouraging,” McKechnie said. “There seems to be pretty good demand — they’ve taken the right steps and picked a good partner with Google on the Android side.”
Motorola sales of Android-powered devices could reach one million by the end of this year and soar to 10 million next year. These projections include not only the Verizon DROID but the MILESTONE, CLIQ (T-Mobile) and DEXT. Not everyone is as optimistic though. MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittinen suggests that the average consumer is not sold on Android-devices.
Verizon is offering the DROID by Motorola for US$199.99 after US$100 mail-in rebate and with an eligible two-year voice and data contract.