The early returns are good for Motorola’s Droid, the Android-based smartphone that the company introduced on Nov. 6 on the Verizon Wireless network. While most quantitative measures won’t be available for a while, an early assessment by Flurry, a mobile analytics service provider, estimates that 250,000 Droids were sold during its first week of availability. This compares favorably to the 60,000 estimated sales for the myTouch 3G.
Given the significant differences in the launch landscape, the DROID results even stack up well against the first week of iPhone 3G availability, which Flurry pegged at about 1.6 million units.
Not Fair to Compare
A direct comparison is a bit unfair, said Peter Farago, Flurry’s vice president of marketing. He pointed out that the iPhone 3G launched in eight markets simultaneously — the U.S., Canada and six European countries — while the Droid only launched in the United States. In addition, the third-generation iPhone 3G was working from an installed base of 27 million users, of which more than six million were expected to upgrade.
Droid can’t claim those numbers, of course, but the common wisdom is that it has had a successful beginning. “I think the handset is off to a good start and is doing well for a company starting from a standing start,” Farago said. “Overall, when you look at the numbers, it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. With that said, Motorola has a really good handset. It has done some deep reinvention and is rising like a Phoenix.”
Flurry directly tracks about two-thirds of iPhone and Droid handsets, Farago said. Based on these and other numbers, it creates what the company says are very accurate estimates for the other third.
Good Start, but Jury Is Still Out
Analysts, working from anecdotal evidence rather than hard numbers, generally agreed with the positive assessment, but…