Verizon's Droid Incredible a surprise hit

Early updates have hinted that the Droid Incredible has at least partly sold out in its first day of sales. In the New York and New Jersey areas, some stores have run entirely dry of the Android phone while others have run low. Online, Verizon has had to repeatedly delay shipments and now won't start shipping new orders until May 7th.

While the possibility exists that low supply is causing the shortages, the pattern mirrors one encountered with the Motorola Droid in November, where Verizon had brisk sales that weren't necessarily complete sellouts but which lasted for a long period. At one point, Verizon was selling as many as 525,000 Droids a month.

If sustained, the sales would mark Verizon's second major success for an Android phone in less than a year and would be all the more significant for the lack of promotion. The carrier has a TV ad and has been promoting the Incredible on the front of its website, but the amount of marketing has been small compared to the full attack from this past fall. Besides numerous TV spots, the Droid was greeted by a special Times Square ad and enough attention that it drew significant lineups at some stores.

The Incredible is Verizon's most advanced phone of any kind far and brings a number of firsts, such as its AMOLED multi-touch screen, a fast 1GHz chip and an 8-megapixel camera.

Verizon has regularly been in the hunt for a "halo" phone to serve as an alternative to the iPhone but has yet to reach similar numbers, even with numbers that have commonly been regarded as very successful. AT&T continues to siphon away some of Verizon's customers as a third of AT&T's 2.7 million iPhone activations were from those new to the network, many of which would have been from Verizon. [via SAI]

By Electronista Staff