A month ago, I reported that Motorola (s MOT) and Verizon (s VZ) were on track to sell a million Droids in the fourth quarter of 2009. Not only are they closer to that milestone, but it seems Droid is also the most dominant Android phone on the market today.
Even though the overall Android app market grew 20 percent month-over-month in December 2009, Droid logged the biggest gains, indicating a higher number of Droids in the market than competing Android devices, new data from Flurry Media, a San Francisco-based mobile analytics company, shows:
- Droid application downloads increased by 93 percent over previous Fridays in December.
- Droid accounted for 48 percent of download volume across the leading Android handsets (Droid, myTouch 3G, G1 and HTC Hero).
In October, HTC Dream was the best-selling Android smartphone, a position it retained during November, but things have started to change. When Droid was released in November, some analysts expected Motorola to sell about 600,000 units during the fourth quarter, but those estimates were quickly revised thanks to a $100 million marketing push by both Motorola and Verizon. In December, it seems Droid has taken a very strong lead among its Android brethren.
Does anyone feel like the name “Droid” was an insanely dumb name to dub a phone? Perhaps I just like how HTC names their phones. For me, when I talk to people about the phone they don’t like the name and are almost immediately interested in the eris due to its smoother, less geeky name. Just my 02.
Ummmm, Braden…”droid” is short for “Android”.
Verizon licensed the name from George Lucas in an effort to make a sharp marketing distinction from the “touchy feely”, “saccharine” marketing Apple uses for the iPhone.
Verizon spent millions in market research on the name, and the cultural distinction is perfectly embodied in the first Droid TV ad:
@Todd…. +1
@Braden,
You’re correct that Droid sounds geeky, however it is targeted to gadget geeks. Additionally, Verizon did an outstanding job researching attitudes towards the name and marketing a tie-in campaign to the Android operating system. It is an example of text book “riding the coattails” of a successful product. The “iHome Audio” product line is an example of the same type of marketing execution except these products tie to Apple’s iPod and iPhone products.
Verizon deserves major kudos for their execution on Droid marketing.
My $.02.
Best.
“Droid” rolls off the tongue very easy. “Dream” or “Hero” do not. Imagine the scenario where you’re out and about with your phone and you want to show something off to your friends.
“Hey guys, check out my Hero”
or,
“Hey Braden, what kind of phone is that you got? Oh, this? It’s a Dream”
Yeah, I can see the laughter following.
or,
“Hey Braden, what kind of phone do you have? Oh, I got a Droid. Cool.”
See the difference? Droid works.
Eh? How does “Droid” roll off the tongue any easier than “Dream” or “Hero” – in fact I think that “Dream” and “Hero” are easier to say. Your examples didn’t exactly prove it in my opinion.
The name Droid is perfect…trendy, futuristic and easily marketable. You won’t forget “Droid.”
You like HTC? Name me one phone from last year. Can’t do it when you have 1000 phones released every year.
Zung by people who don’t think about the average consumer. Don’t get me wrong, Droid is super cool to me and everyone who will post on this post but you…myself, we make up such a small amount of purchasing power it isn’t funny. Remember, the “average” folk I mention above are the people who click next a lot until they get what they think they want.
Wow, my sentence structure and grammar in the above response is atrocious, my bad.
It’s the holidays. don’t worry too much 🙂
Thank you for the kind words Om
I am still surprised by this reported demand for the Droid. I think the iPhone is far superior to it – may be it simply reflects the lack of decent options on the Verizon network. If the iPhone is ever offered on the Verizon network, it should vastly outsell the Droid – at least in it’s current form.
Have you even checked out the Droid? Probably not. I had an iPhone and now the Droid, and believe me this phone is very much on par with the iPhone. I wanted the iPhone on Verizon for awhile, but since picking up the Droid I really couldn’t care less.
Or maybe it’s simply a reflection of the fact that not everybody feels the way you do.
I’m a power iPhone user but the Droid is definitely solid competition to it….this phone is very impressive in several areas and the biggest bonus is being on VZW network
I believe the Droid is on par with the iPhone, but it’s really just the fact that Verizon finally has an Android phone that’s selling this device. The Eris doesn’t count because it’s still using old hardware (ARM11 CPU) and an old version of Android. Not exactly comparable.
As soon as Verizon has another Android phone with cutting edge hardware no one will care about the Droid anymore. It’ll never be like the iPhone where it’s known far an wide for years. Android may get that status, but not Droid.
By droid do you mean both the Moto droid and the Eris (which is also branded droid)?
Rob – I’ve had the Droid since it came out and used the iPhone for 2 years. Several of my issues are minor and a few are major: a minor one for example is when you punch in the phone number (and before you hit dial), the iPhone does a look up in Contacts and shows the name of the person the number is associated with, while the Droid does not (you have to dial the number for that look-up to kick-in); a major problem is that the battery cover keeps falling off. The iPhone has well-thought through UI and usability elements that other mobile OSs lack – Android does a decent job, but is not quite there yet.
You didn’t have to wait for Christmas to heavy app usage on the DROID.
At Localytics, we saw the DROID already exceeding 40% of app usage across Android devices in by Nov 10, just days after the launch. See our full blog post on both the DROID and the Nexus One:
http://www.localytics.com/blog/
Droid is a good phone. I wish Google had not launched its own phone since it should not show step father treatment to companies that adopted its OS.
thisismy dreaqm gadget,..i hope next year i can use that…amien..
It was good to see Motorola making a comeback. It just goes to show that for the industry, remaking yourself usually must start at the top.
Droid was certainly a coup. HTC was early out of the Android starting gate and could have extended their dominance had they chosen to produce a Snapdragon based model when they could have. Instead, they choose Windows Mobile for their first Snapdragon device, a tactical and strategic error in my opinion. Of course, the Nexus One could have figured into the decision.
I wish Motorola success. The increased competition in the Android space in particular and the smartphone space in general will be good for all of us.
DROID is a cool name as far as I’m concerned. But whatever the name, the Motorola Droid the best smartphone/device out there right now. Whatever replaces it as “king of the hill” will probably be … another Droid OS device!