November 10th, 2009
Motorola sells 100k Droids on opening weekend
But I'm not dead yet!
Motorola’s apparent sale of 100,000 new Droid smartphones in its opening weekend indicates that the handset maker is far from dead and probably more viable than industry pundits give it credit for.
The rise and fall of Motorola handsets can be traced back to the original MicroTAC which was launched in 1989. It was succeeded by the wildly-popular StarTAC handset, dubbed the first “wearable phone” in 1996. In 2004 Motorola had another hit with the RAZR V3, an ultraslim, metal-clad, quad-band flip phone. But then it was all downhill from there.
In 2005 Motorola partnered with Apple to release the ROKR (a.k.a. E790), the first iTunes-capable phone and arguably the precursor to the iPhone. Motorola later tried to re-create the magic with the Windows Mobile-based Q in 2006, but that turned out to be an abject failure. After taking a beating with the ROKR and Q, Motorola was understandably gun shy about handsets and took its time to develop the Driod.
According to Bloomberg Verizon Wireless had 200,000 Droid phones on hand and most stores sold at least half of their inventory. Equity research firm Broadpoint AmTech Inc. expects Motorola to sell 1 million Google Android phones in the fourth quarter and 10 million in 2010.
Could Droid turn into the next RAZR for Motorola?
Jason D. O'Grady is the editor of PowerPage.org, which has been publishing daily mobile technology news since December 1995. For disclosures on Jason's industry affiliations, click here or to view Jason's full profile click here.
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