
The Nexus One Is A Flop: 74 Days In, Just 135,000 Sold - fiaz
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-nexus-one-is-a-flop-74-days-in-just-135000-sold-2010-3
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pavs
If sales volume (from limited time) is measurement of success and flop than
OSX is a flop compare to Windows7.

I don't know in which world is selling a new phone of 135k units by a newcomer
in the hardware/phone industry is considered a flop.

Nexus One is Google first shot at a phone on an already heavily competitive
industry. Without having any experience is selling/producing a consumer
product like this, I would say this is a pretty good result for a first time.
Come back after 1 year and another iteration of the phone and than we can talk
about numbers and perhaps decide whether its a flop or a success.

For now, the way I look at it, its an experiment in progress.

I don't even own an andriod phone. I am still happy with my iphone. But when
my contract expires I most likely will consider an android phone.

USA is a matured and very competitive cell phone market, its not very easy to
get existing phone users who are committed to their phone contracts. Getting a
new phone is a fairly long term commitment for most users.

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drc1912
To be fair, their marketing spend compared to their competitors was WAY higher
than Apple's was compared to MS. Google did spend a lot of dough trying to
roll this out.

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ABrandt
Which probably plain and simply does explain their success to date. IMHO this
launch still isn't a flop though. I know Google is an outlier among most
companies, but they're still in a completely unfamiliar market at this point.
Consumer selling is a different beast compared to B2B--Google has never truly
convinced consumers to pay up before. Would you use an HTC search engine, or
hell even an Apple one?

Google's ability to reach into so many distinct markets is pretty remarkable
to me. I think we can't ignore the mountains of data they have on consumer
buying patterns though. They've probably collected more business intelligence
than any other company prior. That's quite the competitive advantage to be
allowed.

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timwiseman
It is only a flop if its goal was really to sell as a commercially viable
product. If on the other hand it was meant to be closer to a reference
implementation, it could be seen as a success as more and more Android based
phones many of which are much like the Nexus One come to market.

The obvious counter to that is why would it be sold at all if it was primarily
a reference implementation. And the obvious answer is marketing. A reference
implementation is generally something only known about by Engineers and people
who track what engineers do. A fully Google branded phone got tremendous press
with practically no standard advertising, and it showed consumers what a
Android phone could be.

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wallflower
+1 on the idea that the Nexus One is Google's ideal (at present) Android
phone.

Hopefully the success of the Nexus One will persuade other Android OEMs to
stop forking Android and to keep their ROMs up-to-date (to allow consumers to
upgrade, hardware be willing, to newer Android OS releases).

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yungchin
I suppose this shows Google is not Dell: selling expensive goods online-only
requires some specific expertise.

The good thing for Google is, that all they probably really care about is the
success of the Android platform; as long as the world buys hardware that plays
nice with the open web and (thus) integrates nicely with Google's services,
it's fine. So the 1M sales of Motorolas in that graph are good news.

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rauljara
I can't see how anyone who really likes their nexus would be phased by this.
Droid's success will ensure there's a steady stream of software for the nexus,
and handset sales don't affect user experience. It's possible that google
might not release a new nexus, and that would probably be bad, except it looks
like android as a whole is here to stay. Someone will be manufacturing hi-
quality android phones designed specifically to be better than the latest,
shiniest iPhone, no doubt.

I just have to add, though, that as a long time fan of apple products, it
still very, very weird to be using products with high market shares. You'd
think I'd have gotten over it after a couple of years of the iPod, but no,
it's still weird seeing apple logos everywhere. It's weird, but I kind of
preferred it when apple's stuff was less common.

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jonpaul
This is really quite disappointing. I really wish Google would have done two
things:

1) Released the Nexus One on Verizon already and not just T-Mobile. Yea,
yea... I know you can use it with AT&T. I have one, but you can't use 3G.

2) MOST IMPORTANT: A large marketing campaign on Android. I don't know any
mainstream user that knows what the "Android" is, everyone knows what the
Droid is.

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WesleyJohnson
All indicators point that it's going to release for Verizon on the 23rd.
Granted, that won't help the "first 75 days" numbers, but I'd wager money that
the sales will skyrocket when it's released. No, I don't have any solid data
or research to back that up, it's just a hunch.

I've held off of disowning my BB Storm and getting a Droid just to wait for
the Nexus One. Of course, your 2nd point feeds into that heavily. Anytime I
mention Android, several people I know that have a Droid or Droid Eris claim
they have an "Android". I suppose technically speaking, they do, but they
certainly don't understand the difference.

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rbanffy
Some Android phones will sell millions, some will sell a dozen. Android is
only the platform that makes them run the same software. That would be like
implying Symbian is a failure because the nGage didn't sell well.

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pclark
very true. Except the article is stating the Nexus One is a flop, not android:

> Nexus One sales are still flopping.

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rbanffy
Unless the reader is careful, he could misread the headline as stating Android
is a failure while, in fact, it's a very narrow observation on the lackluster
sales of a recent device.

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e40
I went with the Droid because I would not purchase a phone online. I want to
be able to either exchange a defective phone or return it within the first 30
days. I read lots of people complaining about the mail-it-in-for-a-new-one
online. Turnaround? 2 weeks.

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araneae
That's so weird. I love buying things online... physical stores are such time
sucks.

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tl
My options are:

* Verizon who has no problem selling other Android phones but doesn't have the Nexus One (yet)

* AT&T which I have bad experience with, and is pushing the iPhone

* TMobile which is so bad that a friend of mine who works them strongly recommends you shop elsewhere

I have a basic Verizon phone that I'm replacing with a Nexus One when it comes
out Real Soon (TM). That phone is about 5 years old and is starting to fail

Anyone else in the same situation.

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jbellis
So it turns out that carriers subsidize phones because ... customers like it
that way?

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ryandvm
Seriously. Who expected people to pony up the extra $300 for the Nexus One
(over the Droid) just for the privilege of being on T-Mobile's sub par network
and no contract? Most people stick with a carrier for half a decade or so. Two
year subsidies are not _that_ onerous.

Bring the Nexus One to Verizon with the option of a carrier subsidy and we'll
see how much of a flop it really is...

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grandalf
I agree. Also, if you happen to be an existing T-Mobile customer you get to
pay a $100 loyalty penalty!

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dmpayton
In my case it's a $300 loyalty penalty, as I'm on a flexpay plan.

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Roridge
but Droid is doing pretty well [http://www.androidguys.com/2010/03/16/flurry-
compares-nexus-...](http://www.androidguys.com/2010/03/16/flurry-compares-
nexus-droid-iphone-benchmark/)

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tseabrooks
I'm not sure I'd call the Nexus One a flop. A) You, and a lot of others, are
still talking about it. B) It's more about getting Android 'out there' than
about selling phones

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unwind
I wonder how this connects to the recently announced thing where they hand out
free Ones to top app developers. I also heard that speakers that the recently-
held Game Developers Conference also all got Nexus Ones, courtesy of Google
...

If you can't sell them, hand them out for free as a PR move?

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theBobMcCormick
I think handing them out free at the Game Developers Conference was more about
getting game developers excited about creating games for the Android platform.

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Auzy
That could also be because there are only a few countries where it is being
sold, and the lack of advertising for the Nexus One. Many people haven't even
heard of it, but I think once they know that flash wont apparently run on a
droid, they will consider the nexus one.

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theBobMcCormick
Flash doesn't currently run on either the droid or the N1 (or the iPhone for
that matter). Ever rumor I've read about Flash coming to Android has indicated
both the Droid and the N1 are likely to get it.

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Auzy
The nexus one maybe, but I adobe have already said it will only be available
for smartphone's with fast CPU's, and so not sure if the Droid qualifies (of
course I hope it does though).

Either way, mobile technology moves so quickly, this will quickly change. And
we all know that Apple does get away with selling inferior hardware devices
anyway, so Apple might succeed even if they they sell garbage to people.

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eirene
Reiterating theBobMcCormick's point, Google's UX/UI is a flop (see Buzz). Who
wants to buy a phone that’s only available online? A phone one can’t check out
IRL and then take home? Not me, not a lot of people apparently.

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Tichy
Which popular Android apps come with Flurry?

Everybody I know who is in the market for a new phone wants to have a Nexus
One. They are mostly geeks, though.

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fierarul
The nexus one should do better when it goes outside US.

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mlni
Given that much of Europe is used to smartphones costing €600, Nexus One
should fit right in.

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Roridge
Traction can be a bitch, doesn't mean it's a "flop"... only time will tell on
that one.

