Nexus One’s slow sales blamed on online-only strategy

http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/03/16/nexus-ones-slow-sales-blamed-on-online-only-strategy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Venturebeat+%28VentureBeat%29

by ilamont • 16 years ago

16 29 16 years ago

mobile.venturebeat.com

ars• 16 years ago

Would it not be possible for google to sell this at BestBuy and the like? I bet even WalMart would be willing to sell it.

nexneo• 16 years ago

I hope this is last post regarding Nexus One's slow sales in first 2 months. It doesn't matter.

latch2• 16 years ago

Online-only strategy, lack of traditional advertising, lack of carrier choice, US-only availability.

If you did a real survey asking what 'Android' or 'Nexus One' are, I'd be curious to know how many knew (I'm guessing about 10%)

yv• 16 years ago

Ask them about Symbian. Symbian is by far the most popular smartphone platform, but it's not a household name. It's just an OS - my mom doesn't even know she needs one on her phone

latch2• 16 years ago

But if you asked them to list cell/smart phone providers, they'd probably list Nokia before Google.

KWD2• 16 years ago

I'd add lack of customer support as well. I'd be willing to go with the Nexus One, but I know Google has a really poor history for customer service across all their products/services. Until they learn to provide this I'll still buy through the normal channels.

jrockway4• 16 years ago

What kind of customer service are you expecting for a phone? Help inserting the SIM card?

warfangle• 16 years ago

You have a choice in the US between AT&T and T-Mobile, and Rogers now in Canada as well. It's coming soon to Vodafone and Verizon as well. Carrier choice is coming.

chubbard• 16 years ago

As pointed out by other readers Symbian ISN'T the brand that Nokia holds up to their end users. I think it's a mistake to advertise Android to the masses as a brand. Sun tried that with Java and it didn't work because they spent so much of their resources advertising Java to the end user they didn't actually do compelling things with it. Contrast that with Flash where Adobe did compelling things with it, developers wanted to do that, and users loved it. First doing something compelling to attract attention, then you can tell them how you did it. Not the other way around.

araneae• 16 years ago

Google was obviously marketing to other people who are like Googlers. We all knew about the Nexus One (because we keep up on new tech), prefer T-Mobile (because they were the only carrier to refuse to cooperate with warrant-less wiretapping), and love to buy stuff online (because we hate going to the mall).

But we're a pretty small portion of the market. If the wanted big commercial success, they had to market to people who weren't like them.

vetinari2• 16 years ago

I blame two things:

a) "Sorry, the Nexus One phone is not available in your contry or region" message at google.com/phone,

and b) when it is available, it is €599 or (€199 + €45/mo for two years). When I saw the ad, my first thought was "great, you get to keep it for yourself". Outside of enthusiasts, no one is going to get phone for 600 euros.

jrockway4• 16 years ago

"Sorry, the Nexus One phone is not available in your contry or region" message at google.com/phone

And the Droid doesn't have this problem?

no one is going to get phone for 600 euros

Except all the people that do? The original iPhone was this expensive and didn't even have 3G. And yet people bought them in droves.

vetinari2• 16 years ago

> And the Droid doesn't have this problem?

Yes, it does. But it is still more available than N1.

> Except all the people that do? The original iPhone was this expensive and didn't even have 3G. And yet people bought them in droves.

Original iPhone was $399 and $499. €599 is north of $800, thats more than 1/3 more expensive. And I also remember that the original iPhone was met with collective yawn on this side of pond and almost nobody bought unsubsidized.

theBobMcCormick2• 16 years ago

Actually, you probably payed a hell of a lot more than that for your current cell phone. I don't know how it works in Europe, but in the US, when you let the carrier subsidize the phone, they're charging you a lot more than $520 cost of the N1 over the course of your 2 year contract.

On the other hand, if you buy the N1 at full price, Tmobile in the US has a set of unsubsidized plans (called "Even More Plus") that are a lot cheaper than the normal subsidized plans that they, and the other US carriers, usually offer.

stanleydrew• 16 years ago

I'm not sure Google even cares. I don't think Google is trying to profit a great deal directly from N1 sales. I think they win in the long run by pushing android to be the best it can be and by making the entire mobile device market more modular. Google's vision is to have your choice of device divorced from your choice of carrier, which is divorced from your choice of phone number, and all of it divorced from your choice of applications to run.

ilamont• 16 years ago

Google can afford to iterate, or fail. It's actually quite liberating, as some experiments/acquisitions manage to make some respectable headway over time (Android) while the others are left to languish (Knol) or are cut when it's clear the product or the market aren't promising (Lively).

yason• 16 years ago

I don't think Google is in any way in a hurry. They'll just want to see where it's going first, while cumulating momentum. A sudden disruption in the smartphone market wouldn't be feasible nor useful: similarly they kept Gmail invite only until they felt confident enough that they've learned enough from the early users.

aduric• 16 years ago

I agree. This fits in very nicely with their release early and iterate model. If it works for software, why not hardware as well. I'm surprised they didn't call it Nexus Beta.

martythemaniak• 16 years ago

Another way to look at it is that the Nexus One can be successful if they want it to be a Halo product - ie, it is meant to be a showcase of Android and to get people talking about it, then leaving other companies to move a massive number of units. It also makes sense in that it won't upset their partners very much.

e40• 16 years ago

I wanted an N1, but got a Droid instead. I had 30 days to return it to the VWZ store and exchange it on the spot if it was defect or I didn't want the phone.

I could also try the phone in the store before buying it, to make sure I liked it enough to warrant a 30-day trial.

The N1 will never do as well as the in-store phones. Eventually, google will understand this and release it to the stores. Until then, it will sell very slowly.

orangecat• 16 years ago

The N1 will never do as well as the in-store phones.

Right, and they may not care. The main purpose of the N1 may be a warning to carriers that they can't cripple their phones too much because there will always be an open alternative.

melling• 16 years ago

Doesn't this all become irrelevant later this month when Verizon starts selling the phone?

samd• 16 years ago

How can you blame one thing on the slow sales when there are so many confounding factors?

If a lack of in-store sales is the primary culprit that means that hundreds of thousands of people show up at the store having never heard of the iPhone/Droid/N1 and end up buying it. I highly doubt that's the case. People go to the store to try/buy a smartphone they've already heard of elsewhere. If Google had spent more money marketing the N1 their sales would've been better. Also, their timing was awful.

scotty79• 16 years ago

Does Google advertise Nexus One at all?

noodle• 16 years ago

as far as i know, nope.

theBobMcCormick2• 16 years ago

I believe there's occasional small ads for it on the Google home page.

jrockway4• 16 years ago

I am not sure that this is bad. 200,000 people are walking around with a $600 unlocked Linux phone. This is a major, major change in everything; open software, carrier freedom, etc. Selling that many is quite surprising, in fact.

When Google starts advertising and the price goes down to $99, and it doesn't sell then, then you should be worried. But right now, Google is doing everything possible to prevent people from even knowing about this thing -- and it's still selling well. When Google starts putting Android billboards on every open space in a major city (as Apple does with iPhone advertising), then you can start comparing it to the iPhone. But right now, this is an ultra-niche product that normal people don't even know about.

Nexus One’s slow sales blamed on online-only strategy

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