Motorola Droid Sales March On

Motorola

(MOT)

Droid sales

continue at a steady rate in their second week. Put that somewhere between brisk and halting.

The latest estimate comes from the familiar Broadpoint AmTech analyst Mark McKechnie, the original "guesstimator" who put

Droid sales

at

Verizon

(VZ) - Get Free Report

stores at 100,000 a week ago. McKechnie says recent checks show the "sales pace remains strong."

McKechnie is now confident that Motorola is on track to sell Verizon 600,000 Droid phones this year.

Overall, McKechnie says Motorola will likely sell 1 million Android phones if you include the tally of

Best Buy

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and online Droid sales along with Cliq sales at

Deutsche Telekom's

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T-Mobile and Milestone (Canadian Droid) sales at

Rogers Communications

(RCI) - Get Free Report

.

>>Photo Gallery: Android

The 600,000 year-end number is more consistent with the

400,000 Droid supply estimate last week

by Michael Cote of the Cote Collaborative.

And while sales to phone companies aren't a true measure of phone sales to customers, they can provide Motorola investors a view on supply levels.

Droid is Motorola's $200,

Google

(GOOG) - Get Free Report

Android-powered flagship phone that is key to the turnaround strategy at the fallen tech titan. The closely-watched Droid sales have clearly fallen short of the high

Apple

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iPhone-like expectations for a quick 1-million-sold debut. But the Droid has been a modest success, given its North America-only scope and the intense rivalry in the smartphone market with BlackBerrys from

Research In Motion

(RIMM)

and other Android-powered phones from

HTC

.

While some analysts have placed the Droid's debut on par with the weak-selling

Palm

(PALM)

Pre, McKechnie says its sales might track higher than that.

"We view the Storm's initial launch success at Verizon last year as the upper end of what Droid might be able to achieve in its first few months," McKechnie wrote in a research note Tuesday.

Verizon sold 1 million touch-screen BlackBerry Storms in first 80 days of its introduction last year.

McKechnie's estimate of 100,000 Droids sold in the first weekend at Verizon was considered troubling by some analysts, and set off

a noisy debate over the measure of success

. Verizon needs a blockbuster phone for the holidays to counter the magnetic pull of the iPhone at rival

AT&T

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. Given the estimated $100 million marketing investment Verizon has made on Droid, anything short of 1-million sold this year will be considered a bust.

Motorola shares, which have doubled in value this year on hopes of an Android-powered turnaround, were up 1.5% to $8.83 Tuesday.

-- Written by Scott Moritz in New York

.