DROID's First 74 Days Sales Edge Out iPhone's

A recently published analytics report from Flurry showed that the Motorola DROID, which was released on the market in November last year, managed to out sale the first generation iPhone during the first 74 days of availability. According to the company, the iPhone was sold in one million units during the time frame, while the DROID is estimated to have been sold in 1.05 million units during the same time frame.

The difference between the sales of the two devices is a rather small one, but it still shows that the Android 2.0-based Motorola DROID managed to perform better than Apple's device. “This was surprising enough that we re-ran our estimates several times and still came up with the same results. Thinking about the differences associated with each launch (operator, year, etc.), we believe there are three underlying drivers of Droid worth keeping in mind,” Flurry notes.

The Motorola DROID managed to out perform both the iPhone and Google's Nexus One, the last one showing the weaker performance of all (eight times lower than the DROID and the iPhone). Among the factors that contributed to DROID's impressive performance, Flurry counts as main ones the Consumer Perception & Demand, the Relative Subscriber Bases, and the Holiday Season Sales.

The DROID was brought to the market 2.5 years after the first generation iPhone landed, and the way people looked at mobile computing devices was very different than today. According to Flurry, Apple has been hard at work with showing the capabilities of such a device, and DROID benefited from an already existing awareness among consumers. Not to mention that the device landed on the market after the first Android-based handsets made they debut, including the G1 and MyTouch 3G.

When it comes to Relative Subscriber Bases, Flurry notes the following: “Droid launched on Verizon, a larger network with more subscribers than AT&T, especially when considering AT&T's 2007 size (63.7 million at the time of iPhone launch) versus Verizon's 2009 size (89 million at the end of Q3). Additionally, there was pent up demand among the Verizon subscriber base for an iPhone killer, which is exactly how Verizon positioned the Droid. Finally, Verizon backed the launch with advertising support of at least $100 million.”

Finally, the launch time frame also influenced a lot the sales of DROID, that's for sure. The handset arrived in early November at Verizon, and its first 74 days of availability included the holiday season, the highest selling time frame of the year. The iPhone did not enjoy the same market conditions, while the Nexus One was launched in the first quarter of the year, which usually registers the slowest sales.