The Nexus One Is A Flop: 74 Days In, Just 135,000 Sold

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

but Droid is doing pretty well http://www.androidguys.com/2010/03/16/flurry-compares-nexus-...

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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