Nexus One sales disappoint

Two interesting stories.

About advertising - Google didn't advertise it, except on the Google home page and almost any tech or mobile phone related website accessed from a computer in the US. I've heard discussion about the value of an ad on the Google home page being worth millions of dollars with it's millions of views every day. Well apparently it doesn't work that well.

Here another, the 80,000 phone sold might be closer to 60,000. The 80,000 calculation is based on users of the phone not sales. It's been said that Google gave free Nexus One phones to its employees. That's about 20,000 people.

what's this with one networks over another? Whenever I buy a new phone I simply pop in my sim card and continue with my new phone. Why not just buy the N1 untethered and stay with whatever network you already have?

Apple already has a legion of followers prior to iPhone launch, since iPod was such a success. So it's only natural that iPhone sales were astronomical in day one.
Apple products are made for the looks (and bragging rights). They pack little functionality, zero expandability but one has to be blind to say Apple products aren't beautiful.
I've always been a minimalist. It's really difficult to make something simple and at same time stunning. Apple just can do that.
N1 looks like an ordinary smartphone. No one will admire it by it's aesthetics. But it has a very interesting OS, and potential to be an awesome phone. But when you're in the street, it won't catch any looks. That's its main fault. If goole is serious about launching such devices, they should put much more efford in design.
Maybe google should stay out the cellphone market, they should focus on Android, once well stabilished, they could venture in cellphone making.

So *that's* how they plan to avoid undermining the spread of the Android platform on other devices. They just do crappy pricing and marketing so their own product sells awful.

@ Richard - erm... no decent hardware??? Have you seen the spec for this phone: http://www.google.com/phone/static/en_US-nexusone_tech_specs.html
I'd take a 1ghz processor any day of the week!

OK.

Android is trying to break the market. They have a good OS and no decent hardware.

Nokia is trying to re-gain market share. They have great hardware and two OSes - the out-dated Symbian OS and the new Maemo 5 OS which is only available on one high end niche handset.

Why don't these guys get together and they would eat Apple alive.

I don't know why this doesn't happen.

dave is a classic example of a guy who hasn't been laid in years. See all that frustration and anger lol. It's a phone take it easy.

I think Google are using early adopters as beta testers before it launches worldwide. I have a phone on order but it is not available from UK networks, plus only a few countries can get it.

They're the biggest advertiser on the web so when the time is right they will push it. A well placed ad on the front page will shift a few.

Well what do you expect when they've done practically no advertising on TV, not to mention the customer service sucks a buggy 3G and they dicided to only sell the phone online. Its no wonder and its retarted the way they decided to go about the seeling of this gadget! To get back on their feet from this embarrassing thing they need to first fix the 3G problem, then start heavy advertising and lastly START seeling the phone thru the carriers.

oohmyygoood:

Get your facts right before posting nonsense. Typical Iphone/Apple user, "head in the sand" ignorance.

I just don't want one.

Because im just sick to death of this carrier specific crap.
If is shows up on Sprint, i'll consider it.
If not, big deal.
after all.
It's.just.a.phone.

I think you guys over think it. I think its because Christmas came and past and it wasn't out then, everyone just invested in a new phone with a 3 year contract and couldn't just go out and buy a second one!

You, sir, are spectacularly uninformed and/or a fool.

...that people pay so much money for a phone so they can pay so much more money for the service. Then the service often doesn't work so great or is limited in one way or another. People really do throw away too much money on phones and phone services. I would simply never buy a smartphone because it's not that smart lol

....just too many smartphones and not enough buyers?

The market is saturated. You look on Engadget and it looks like 5 new smartphones are released every other day.

The love affair is over.

This is a mystery?

They release a phone that retails for almost $600 US at the tail end (hopefully) of a recession, there are plenty of phones that cost less than 1/2 as much that can *almost* be just as good, and they can't figure out why it isn't selling well?

Weird.....

A month before release i heard the phone would be sold for $199 unlocked and for $99 unlocked for people that had a google account for more than one year. I would have bought one immediately.

Now it supposed to cost $499 with contract and $599 without? Get Real.

Who said 80K was below Google's expectations?

Eric Tseng (Android Product Manager) said they were very happy with the sales. It isn't about outselling the iPhone, Google is a business, its about setting objectives and meeting/exceeding them.

Long term gain vs short term fanboi appeasement "Muh pone sold 10 trillion units in duh 1st week, we iz ballin!"

Where I live, in the "former British colony known as Virginia" (as referred to by Inq), the T-Mobile brand is marketed as and thought of as a second rate mobile carrier. Most people who use T-Mobile, are of a low income demographic, and generally get "free" phones, not $200 smartphones. While $200 is attractive to someone like myself, who spends $500 on Windows smartphones (waiting to find out about this potential Zune/Win7mo phone before buying next phone), $200 is not free. A large percentage of the people using T-Mobile are using phones that they can get for free when they sign up and pay for the least amount of monthly allowable. More people who are likely to spend $200-$500 are probably on Verizon and Sprint services, because they are good quality. The people who are actually going to switch services for a phone? well they already switched to AT&T's rubbish network so they could look trendy with their iPhones! Sorry, Google's biggest flaw is tying themselves to T-Mobile. If you were to ask me (and I know you were about to) the cell makers need to start selling more "unlocked" phones, that work with multiple carriers. The way to be most successful, is to expose your product to the most customers. That's why more software comes out for Windows than Mac, it's why more exclusive games and games in general were made for the Playstation 2 than Xbox 1, etc. This phone would be the perfect phone to do that on too. It's open source & there's plans for it to come to most carriers. Why not make one phone and send it to all carriers, at least. Then, once you get all the customers hooked on your product, then you make your future product one phone and make the cell carriers line up to offer your phone.

Back on topic away from the fanboi bashing. Personally think that looking at the details its mostly an issue of where to buy. Yes we can go to Gooogle and buy the phone, but do any of the highstreet phone shops have it? nope. Do many other sites have it available? nope.

It's quiet a limiting factor to getting it widespread the tied into Google when the only people going to buy it, are those who know about it through reading the tech press. In a highstreet someone seeing "Googlephone" will instantly become a possible sell through actually seeing what they never knew existed before.

Finding a back page on Google doesn't work that well for this kind of market. Now if Google added a advert on the main front page for it, then I suspect the sales numbers would suddenly change!

QUOTE
But the biggest problem with it: I would have to carry 2 gadgets in my bulging pocket: the N1 and an iPod.
END QUOTE

what kind of tard are you every smart phone on the market doubles as an MP3 player, video player etc. etc. etc.
you were able to these things on win mobile and palm way before the invention of the ipod or iphone.

my blackberry has almost the exact same interface as the ipod..and with OS 5.0 its also ahead of the iphone as far as programming and features(not a big fan of touch screens)

then you claim its way behind the iphone in every test the nexus 1 killed the iphone.

actually almost every smart phone has surpassed the iphone in every catagory. i mean c'mon they just finally got MMS

you need to check your rabid fanboi-ism and stop attending the jobs brainwashing seminars........

Like others have said...sell the damn thing in Canada! We %^&! want one!

@dave

And even with such a high spec processor, the user experience is simply dismal. It's sluggish, error prone and the lack of multitouch makes it just soooo cumbersome to use (Yes, I've tried it). Not to speak of the frequent crashes when you stumble upon Flash based web sites.

But the biggest problem with it: I would have to carry 2 gadgets in my bulging pocket: the N1 and an iPod.

Thanks but no thanks.

All Google has to do is to stick their hardware into Droid/Milestone.

The Nexus One looks horrible outside, but good looking inside. The Milestone looks good outside, but horribly capped speed & RAM. You stick them together, hopefully you will get a nice looking speedy phone.

or canadians can't order the dammn thing on line like what the beeep what rogers grab google by the nardlies would love to get the phone but one thing i have seen rogers fights unlocked phones hand and foot and disables most of the acess on the phones you get from them .. so what ever no jobs no money the world has gone bad like a rotten egg and i have the cash but can't get the phone .. when will they learn that were now a global economy and to prosper it needs to start operating as one.. rant finished sigh

Ms has an ace.

Ha! Windows isn't even in the picture anymore! Android and iphone are the driving forces now and Windows just can't keep up! If its Linux-based your in the right direction and that's forward! Windows, ha-ha please fool!!!!!

It's just garbage just like other Android devices. Same with iPhone as well.

How many years has Android been on the market now? Like 1? and You've gotten like 1.0, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0 & God Knows what!?

This many updates in this short period of time!

And people complain that MS WinMo is garbage. Just gotta love the Haters more than the fanboys!

The only thing Android & iPhone got going for themselves is the App. Store garbage thingy which is classical rip the consumer off.

No Thanks. I won't buy Android devices.

I'll wait for WinMo 7. 6.5 isn't bad now with the new update.

Symbian is 10x better than Andriod & iPhone its even open source now.

Yeah WinMo & Symbian don't look that great but heyy at least they get the job done & you get wide compatibility & tons of apps coded for them over the years.

How is 80k units sold in less than a month via one retailer a fail? Not everyone was affected by the 3g problem and a fix for those that were, along with OS-wide multi-touch, is now available in the first month the phone has been on the market. If this apple, it would be months for a fix to be released. This phone has set the bar not only for future android phones, but future smartphones in general. No one should settle for anything less.

Apple is one company that offers one phone w/ one OS then revises it every other year or so. That little bitten Macintosh logo sure has it's fan base that wouldn't consider anything else.

The N1 may be a better phone with a kickass Google OS, but is still bunched into a huge group of "non-i" to pick from.

To me, I want this phone, but will never buy any phone on month one. I also need to finish off my Sprint contract and jump over to Verizon; and I like Sprint here. And I'm still not actually sick of the HTC Hero or Touch.

So with all that in mind, 60K vs 500K units can't be all that cut and dry. AT&T users that have an iPhone want a newer one can jump right on it. Just upgrade and renew. Not so easy for any non-i/AT&T consumer.

You're comparing an xbox or pc to a phone for games? I get it that you like the Nexus One but that's a pretty bad comparison. At least if you'd said PSP or Nintendo DS it might've been a reasonable comparison. People have their phones with them almost 100% of the time.

Great job Google- rather than going with the 1st (VZW), 2nd (ATT), or 3rd (Sprint) largest network to launch this awesome device, you go with the distant 4th. That strategy didn't work well for the G1- why would it work again the second time?

I want one, I really do. But I'm not going to switch to T-mobile to get one.

Luckily, the Nexus One is not only headed to Verizon, but also AT&T according to FCC filings:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/29/nexus-one-for-atandts-3g-bands-likely-in-the-works/

Give it time, and put it on better networks, and the people will buy it in droves.

I know I will, as long as it hits a better network soon...

iPhone has 99,990 apps I don't need and 10 I do.

Android has 9,990 apps I don't need and 10 I do.

Pretty much a wash, there.

Games? Really? Have you ever tried an XBox or PC? I hear they have some cool games with better controls.

N1 can be easily bought unlocked , so many Iphones where bought to be sold on eBay . And when that failed many where returned NIB do you have the numbers .

I live in Kuwait and managed to get one via proxy . I'm not facing any problems with 3G .
I didn't bother with the Iphone since I don't like the way it is sold .

It's not available everywhere yet. I, for one, live in Canada and would LOVE to get my hands on a Nexus One, but it's impossible for me to get my hands on one.

Also, I'm assuming Canada isn't the only country where it's not available yet.

Maybe they're waiting for it to be available nearly everywhere before going into huge publicity campaigns?

I have both the N1 and the iPhone 3GS. I have to say that I'm thoroughly impressed with the N1. Sure, there aren't as many apps, but honestly the majority of apps I use everyday are available for both platforms. The ability to run more than one app at a time, the amazingly vivid (albeit finger print magnet) screen, and not having to deal with Apple DRM and iTunes...well the N1 is just a better phone for me. The only problem I have with the N1 is the lack of internal storage...but it's easily remedied by an sd card (of course, you have to factor this into the overall cost of the device) and I never really used that much space on my iPhone anyway.
Too bad it's not catching on, but I think support from Verizon's network will help. Hopefully they push it like they did the Droid. And as for support...I think I receive as much from google as I ever did from Apple.

@dave

I notice you didn't say anything about games or other apps :)

To bad great phone , and not so good network .
Of course the iPhone is a great phone , but AT&T's network is crap , bring either to VZW and you will have a hit .

mutlitasking?
iphone:NO
n1:YES

processor?
n1:FAST
iphone:not as fast

Open Development?
n1:CHECK
iphone:FAIL

OLED Screen?
n1: CHECK
iphone:FAIL

Network?
n1: GSM Unlocked and coming to Verizon
iphone: AT&T, huge FAIL

Outdated Industrial Design?
iphone: CHECK
n1: not quite

..is it simply because it isn't a very good phone?

It's only selling point is its price. Everything else is bland and way behind the iPhone.

You could realize that the Nexus One isn't on ATT's network. Besides, The N1 is coming to Verizon this spring, so who cares. All will be forgiven.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that AT&T is a second-class network. You have GSM voice which is not horrible on it's own, but 3G coverage is very low and you fall back on EDGE quite a bit. If you are on Verizon and fall back from EV-DO to 1X, you still get well over 100kbits/sec. With EDGE, you are lucky to get 30kbits/sec on odd days of the week with even numbered months and hours of the day that are prime numbers but only if you lick the antenna of the phone constantly to keep it aroused. This is a data-heavy smartphone, and the DATA network MATTERS...