Analyst says Droid in strong demand

Motorola's Droid smartphone may have sold several hundred thousand units in less than a month, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue said in a research note today. Based on store surveys, the expert believes between 700,000 and 800,000 of the Android devices may have been sold since November 6th. Major Verizon stores could be selling as many as 100 to 200 Droids every week.

The scale appears to be consistent with rough estimates from a week after launch, which used new users and traffic to predict about 250,000 total Droid users in the seven-day span. In the long term, Sue expects Motorola to ship as many as 1.5 million smartphones in the fall, all of which should be Android phones and most of which should be Droids.

If borne out by actual results, the quarter could give the Droid a promising start as a viable competitor to the iPhone and other "halo" phones at other carriers. Apple shipped over 1.1 million iPhones in their first full quarter on the market in summer of 2007, though that device arrived with lesser demand for smartphones than today and without much in the way of significant competition.

Verizon launched the Droid in the midst of much stiffer competition but has also had the advantage of a larger customer base than AT&T as well as a major marketing campaign that has included a semi-interactive Times Square display. [via GigaOM]

By Electronista Staff