If you can remember for just a minute that Motorola (NYSE: MOT) has struggled to produce any relevant handsets over the last year or so, then this is a significant step for the company.

Bloomberg reports that Schaumburg, Illinois-based company probably sold 100,000 Droid phones over the first weekend. Mark McKechnie at Broadpoint AmTech said Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) had 200,000 Droid phones on hand for the opening weekend and most stores sold at least half of their stock. At that pace, the analyst is hopeful that Motorola will sell 1 million Android phones in Q4 and up to 10 million in 2010. “I see the first few days as encouraging. There seems to be pretty good demand—they’ve taken the right steps and picked a good partner with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) on the Android side.”

But while those opening-weekend sales may be strong for Motorola, they aren’t necessarily huge for Verizon, or are on the same level as Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), which sold more than 1 million of iPhone 3GS in its weekend debut in June.

Sales will likely only pick up as Motorola starts selling the device internationally. It announced today that it will start selling the Droid, under the name the “Motorola Milestone” in Canada via TELUS starting early next year. Based on Motorola’s prospects of staging a comeback, the company’s stock has more than doubled this year. In afternoon trading today, Motorola’s stock is down 18 cents to trade around $8.80.

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