14 DAY TRIAL // More than a week has passed since Google announced the availability of Nexus One by HTC, the first ever Android-based mobile phone to be sold by Google itself, and now the first analyst reports on the handset have already started to emerge. According to Flurry, Google managed to sell only a number of 20,000 Nexus One units in the first week, which doesn't sound that impressive, one should agree.
Flurry also notes that the Nexus One has been outsold by the Motorola DROID by more than 12 times, as Verizon managed to sell a number of around 250,000 units in the first week, while the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G (HTC Magic) is said to have outsold Nexus One by three times. Moreover, the report also shows that Apple's iPhone 3GS outsold the new handset by 80 times, with around 1.6 million units sold in the first week of availability.
However, it should also be noted that Nexus One came to the market as part of a new distribution approach from Google, something that certainly affected its sales. “It's worth noting there are significant differences in the marketing, distribution and perception of the device as revolutionary vs. evolutionary. In short, key business decisions and other factors related to the Nexus One launch make an 'apples-to-apples' comparison difficult,” Flurry states.
Here's what the company has to say about the new device: “As a product, the Nexus One boasts the most advanced Android OS to date as well as unique features, such as Google Voice and Google Maps. However, potentially due to the heightened 'promise' created by early buzz, the handset has ultimately fallen short on sales expectations. Without the 'wow factor' now expected with each new challenger to the iPhone, especially the first smartphone with Google's own branding, demand generation has been modest.”
At the same time, the company points out that the new Nexus One handset hasn't received a great marketing campaign from Google, in comparison with Verizon's approach towards the launch of Motorola DROID, for example. When unveiling the Nexus One, Google announced that it also introduced a new way of selling Android-based mobile phones, and, although it partnered with T-mobile USA for the launch, the release was still a “soft” one, which influenced the first week sales.