Motorola has reportedly sold over 100,000 Droid phones during the device’s first week on the market.
According to Broadpoint AmTech analyst Mark McKechnie, Motorola is likely to ship 1 million Android-based phones in the fourth quarter of 2009 and 10 million in 2010.
“I see the first few days as encouraging,” McKechnie told Bloomberg. “There seems to be pretty good demand – they’ve taken the right steps and picked a good partner with Google on the Android side.”
However, MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittinen sounded a more cautionary note during an interview with the news service.
“I have this nagging suspicion that Android is being overestimated by technology enthusiasts,” explained Kuittinen. “They haven’t really resonated with average consumers.” ??
Indeed, Apple did manage to sell more than 1 million iPhones 3GS models during its weekend debut in June – which far exceed Motorola’s initial figures.
Nevertheless, the $200 Android-based Droid appears to offer a viable alternative to Apple’s iPhone, with a full-QWERTY keyboard, 3.7″ high-resolution screen and multi-window (Flash 10) HTML browser. ??The smartphone is also capable of running multiple applications simultaneously (up to 6) and is the first device to support Google Maps Navigation with turn-by-turn voice guidance.
In addition, the Droid boasts a 5 megapixel integrated camera with dual-LED flash, AutoFocus and image stabilization.
??See Also
Motorola and Verizon trundle out Droid smartphone
Midnight shoppers queue for Droid
Smartphone market: Android and iPhone continue to grow
Sony Ericsson Android lumbers into view
Google intros Android 2.0 Eclair SDK for Droid smartphones
