Motorola's Droid X Smartphone Sells Out on Verizon Wireless Site

Motorola's (MOT) Droid X is either a huge success, or the company didn't make enough of the smartphones to handle even modest demand. Motorola may disclosure in the next few day what happened. The Droid X is sold out on the Verizon Wireless website, and very few are available in the wireless service provider's stores. Verizonwireless.com says that the Droid X won't be available for shipment until July 27.

The fact that the phone may be sold out would appear to be good news for Motorola, if it's a sign of unexpected demand. But Motorola should have had enough of the handsets in inventory even if the Droid X was immensely popular.

Motorola runs the risk that testy buyers who are unhappy about waiting will buy another Android-powered phone that Verizon markets. Those include the Samsung Ally or the less expensive Droid, which may not have the margins that the Droid X does. Alternatively, customers could turn to the Apple (AAPL) iPhone or the Google (GOOG) Android OS-powered HTC Aria, both sold by AT&T Wireless.

Being sold out is almost never a good thing. A sales deferred may be a sale not made -- or lost to the competition.