Droid 2, the much-anticipated follow-up to the original Motorola Droid that debuted on Verizon Wireless in November, could be on store shelves and online as soon as Thursday, according to unconfirmed reports. And if past Droid sales are any indication, Verizon may have trouble keeping the Droid 2 in stock.
The original Droid sold 250,000 units in its first week and 1.05 million in 74 days. Both HTC’s Droid Incredible and the jumbo-screen Motorola Droid X that went on sale last month saw supply problems at launch as Verizon underestimated demand.
The Droid 2 will likely be the first phone to ship with Google’s Android 2.2 operating system and will pack a slide-out keyboard like its predecessor, but with raised buttons. The 3.7-inch screen and five-megapixel camera are the same as the first Droid, but Droid 2 will have a faster one-gigahertz processor and 512 megabytes of volatile memory, up from 550 megahertz and 356 megabytes. The Droid 2 reportedly has eight gigabytes of installed memory, expandable to 32 gigabytes, and can be used as a mobile Wi-Fi hot spot. The likely cost is $199 with a two-year plan.
X-Factor
But one wireless industry analyst thinks the Droid X may actually undermine its newest sibling.
“The original Droid was a big success because Verizon customers are desperate for an iPhone clone,” said Ken Dulaney of Gartner Research. “But horizontal sliders are for users who spend a lot of time texting. At $199, the likely buyer is more split between voice and data and prefers a device that spends more time in portrait mode. And thus the Droid X is the preferred product, as will be the iPhone when it appears [in Verizon stores.]”
So judging the potential of the Droid 2 by the success of the first Droid could be a mistake, Dulaney said. “When there…