Droid takes Manhattan: 100-plus lined up at midnight for new Motorola phone

Some pieces of news are worth mentioning only in passing because they are interesting, but may not mean a thing. CNET says that over 100 people lined up at midnight to be early buyers of the new Motorola (MOT) Droid handset at a Verizon (VZ) store in Manhattan. The store in Herald Square had 500 phones in stock to meet the early demand.

The Droid is Motorola's answer to the Apple (AAPL) iPhone and Palm (PALM) Pre. Wall Street is hopeful that the Droid will lift the handset maker's fortunes, and has driven Motorola stock up over 30 percent in three months. After three years of lean sales since Motorola's flagship RAZR phone went out of style, the company may have a hit again. But one day's sales do not a trend make.

For example, remember the Pre. Sales of the phone, mostly through carrier partner Sprint (S) began with great promise. That caused Palm's stock to rally from just above $10 in May to nearly $18 in late September. Analysts say that Pre sales have slowed considerably, and suddenly Wall Street experts are saying that now is a good time to take profits in Palm's shares. On Wednesday, Palm's stock dropped below $10.

There may have been small lines at midnight to buy the new Droid. The question is whether those lines will still be there at noon a month from now.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.