Many reports are coming in about Droid’s first launch weekend sales, today’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt post at CNN’s Fortune blog is very revealing of the situation, analysts are actually quiet unsure how to label the sales. Some claim they are “a little troubling” others “Encouraging”.
Verizon’s campaign to prepare the Droid’s arrival has been the most expensive in the company’s history, over a $100 million dollars have been spent solely by Verizon, if we compare this to what they sold so far it would bring the cost of advertisement per sold units for them to $100.
Another point is that they are left with a 100,000 unsold handsets in stock and a lawsuit for trying to trick people about their coverage. Moreover Motorola’s stock is losing value, an unpleasant situation indeed when you were predicted to be the company that invented the “iPhone-killer”.
As for the argument that people are tied with their previous contracts, I don’t know how valid the argument is as the iPhone 3GS was probably Apple’s biggest success and it happened only one year after they introduced the 3G which was sold with a 2 year plan.
I am indeed very curious about what is going to happen with the droid, competition is a great thing but it’s gonna take more than that to scare Apple.
[via CNN Fortune]
At least Alexander toned down the snark this time around. But i still feel like i should start to skip any post thats written by him.
Are you an iPhone user or owner?
I’m sort of cracking up because I think we’ll see the same thing we saw with the Palm Pre happen to the Droid.
There will be initial hype.
Reality will settle in, and things will tone down.
It is very unlikely that the Pre or the Palm will be able to catch up with the iPhone on their first or second time out. They may hit it on the third try but not the first.
As much as I’d like there to be a great competitor to the iPhone I don’t see it in the Droid. When I look at it with the keyboard out it looks old-school to me some how. I love phones my first was an AT&T bag phone back in the day. And I know a hit when I see it. I don’t see it in the Droid and I didn’t see it in the Pre.
What makes the iPhone are the apps right now. People are willing to put up with Apple’s BS because the Apps Store is great. Slingplayer, RedLaser, Navigon, and other apps just make my life easier. I’m not willing to give that up to help build a platform. I may be willing to switch when they catch up…but I won’t switch without some good stuff to go to. That’s just plain stupid.
I totally agree with Xultar.
“There will be initial hype. Reality will settle in, and things will tone down.”
There will be a new ‘Droid’ or ‘Palm Pre’ like device every 3-6 months and each that will get hyped. Just wait until Microsoft comes out with whatever their ‘iPhone killer’ will be, the hype for that will be deafening.
Wouldn’t that be $1000 a unit? 100,000,000/100,000=1,000. Or am I missing something?
$100 per device wouldn’t be terrible, because at least you have a chance of making it up in the contracts (though you’re already subsidizing the hardware, so maybe not). Unfortunately, with only 100,000 units sold so far, they spent $1000 per phone on marketing…if the sales don’t pick up dramatically, ouch.
I just got to say that it’s too awesome a Droid ad is served on this story.
If apple and Att really want to rule. Lower the rates for the damn iPhone to 100 a month … And everyone would buy. What dumbasses. 130. A month. Just like gm. With everyone out of work. The middle class pay for everything. No money no one buying cars. The phone is not the problem. It the g damn service plans and agreements … Ps. If your phone is good I want need a contract. I will stay forever And just updat my phone No contracts means less assholes calling and some sales guy more worried about my plan than telling me about my phone….