I see this article a lot. I think it comes down to two things: choice of network, and marketing.

First of all, skipping verizon and att due to my guess, being droid and iphone, was their first mistake. It is coming to these carriers (ATT yesterday), and this will significantly help.

Secondly. Advertise. Nexus one ads are all over the internet, but they don't catch the eye like a tv commercial. None of my friends, who aren't really techies, have no clue what the nexus one is, but know what a droid is. That' a problem.

Once the Nexus One hits verizon, it will outsell the droid. I don't care about keyboards. Most people care about aesthetic design. I, of course, being the techie, love the processor, speed, etc as well. It's the perfect phone.

I seem to recall reading that Google intended this device mainly as a reference design for developers. They had them in the hands of most of their employees for a few months before they released it to the world, and they give them away to developers. Given that there was no advertising campain, I'd say the volume of sales per dollar spent on ads is pretty good compared to iPhone or Droid.

It's really a fairly small step up from the HTC hero (which I own), and shows what a little more memory, a faster CPU and android 2.1 can offer. It makes a lot of sense for Google to take the risk developing this and allowing others for follow rather than try to convince the industry to try something new with no ecosystem in place.

Well in my point of view it did not intend to sell (google does not care that much). It's a phone for us (hardware aficionados)... Also it delivered a lot of buzz and awareness about of Android. So they did not need to push it too far. Most of reviews clearly stated - best phone till next iPhone will come out, so that give Android a head start (new iPhone will appear at least 6 month later).
As for me I wanted to buy iPhone, as a rumour mill went I decided to wait for Nexus One... Checked reviews... Ordered it. Happy!!!
(I do despise apple a lot due to their policies and fan crowd, nevertheless if they produce something better then others I happily buy it (had 2nd gen iPod and 4th gen iPod nano, I even had a Mac Book Pro for a week, changed it to Allienware m15x though, might get a nex one, but I bet they will be too late with core i5/7 and will put some crappy old triple re-branded video card on it). So I happy that I did not needed to buy an iPhone :) Competition is good, competition is AWESOME!!! Of cause Apple will copy half of good stuff and then claim that they invented it (think multitasking, like copy/paste anyone).
Happy owner of Nexus One :)

@ Andrew
"The hardware simply gives them an access point to all their services."

Umm hence all the more reason that makes the N1 as (or maybe should have been..) a profit motive for Google even if it's deemed non-priority?Aside from that,people outside of North American market me (included I'm Malaysian) were expecting at least a revolutionary simultaneous global launch when N1 came out,going by Google's heft.That didn't happen.What's even more annoying right now it's still NOT happening yet.Looking at NA's N1 prices,that as an indicator are also a bit obtrusive in a sense that it'll normally take months in an Asian market for prices to trickle down.The other concern are obviously marketing and brand awareness.You talk N1 to an average smartphone user here and you'd still get "huh?" looks.I don't know but maybe Google plans to actually wait for an N2 (if that's really the case) before they really crank the gears.Either that or they're not in a hurry and would just start another price war when they see fit as they get into outer markets.Question is;is that it or when?

I just wonder whether Google ever intended to sell a boatload of these devices.

Google can't be in this to make a lot of money from hardware. The Nexus One is made and branded by HTC so margins for google can't be great. Anyway, they've always liked to make their money from advertising. The hardware simply gives them an access point to all their services.

Could it simply be that, given the openness of Android and the ability of companies to mess about with it (HTC Sense, Motoblur etc), they need to have a pure device line to act as a core version of what Android can and should do. Originally this was the G1, now it's the Nexus One and its successors. It stops the Android platform from fragmenting too much.

BEIJING -- The Chinese government on Tuesday appeared to set the foundation for Internet giant Google to pull out of China, with one spokesman contending that the company's potential departure would be an "individual business act" and another warning Google to obey Chinese law when it leaves China.

The comments -- by the spokesmen for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce -- followed strong indications that Google, which has been locked in a dispute with the Chinese government over censorship, was preparing to leave China.

Chinese online advertisers are advising their clients to switch their accounts to

Interputed as Sword thru heart, ups antee' to 99.99% sure OUT, China has Own Government Search Engine, Now.

So Long, Nice to Know You.

DRASHEK Forgein Service Commander.

That the Nexus One was the 3rd Android smartphone launched on the TMo network in the US. I can see why they wanted the G1 out first - it could flush out the bugs, but the MyTouch was a mistake to launch if they were going to push the Nexus One as the phone appear too similar from a user perspective.

With that said, I bought my wife a G1 when it debuted (for personal use only) and she loves it. Before buying it, she didn't care about 1G or 3G and didn't see the need for a smart phone. Now, it is part of her being. I just got a Tilt2 on the AT&T network, and while the 3G coverage is superior to TMo and the hardware is superior as well, I would trade it in a heartbeat for an Android phone if my company supported Android handsets. Android will win, in my opinion, not because of the cool interface and app store, but for the fact that a lot of the apps are FREE. My phone is running WinMo 6.5 and there are no free apps (other than Google Maps) that are worth downloading. Iphone has the same problem as WinMo with the exeption that apple fans are more willing to part with their money on apps.