Despite a ton of press and a strong first couple of weeks, it hasn’t been all peaches for the Motorola Droid. The phone-that-saved-Motorola has experienced a few ticks including problems with the camera’s autofocus and substandard voice clarity. So earlier this week, Verizon rolled out a software update and will be sending it to Droids for another week or so at low usage times.
The Motorola Droid has been making waves on the tech blogosphere, television and smartphone market for the past few months, and some details on its successor, the rumored Sholes (Droid) tablet, are beginning to surface, courtesy of Chinese forum Mobile 01. Thanks to the site, we get the idea that the Sholes tablet will best its predecessor by adding an HDMI out and 8MP camera with 720p video recording and xenon flash.
Thanks to a vigorous albeit irritating ad campaign, the Motorola Droid smartphone has enjoyed strong sales and is expected to hit the one million mark by the end of 2009. Industry analysts’ numbers indicate that somewhere between 700,000 and 800,000 Droids have been sold since the late-October launch and demand is still strong.
The Verizon/Motorola ad campaign cost $100 million and represented the largest marketing budget Verizon has ever had for a mobile phone. Judging by the initial numbers, it seems that the big campaign has translated into strong consumer demand and lucrative sales.
The Android 2.0-based Droid was viewed as Motorola’s comeback phone, and so far it looks like it will be just that, helping Motorola to make some waves in iPhone territory. We’ll see if it continues its strong success into next year. [via CNET]
