After months of rumor and intrigue, the Google phone finally went on sale to a tidal wave of press across the technology world, and also, it now appears, a gigantic yawn everywhere else.
Flurry, the mobile applications analytics provider, has been tracking phone launches for some time. They released a report to the following bent: the Nexus One sold around 20,000 units its first week.
What does that mean? The Nexus One has completely failed to capture the public attention. Even with Google promoting it on their homepage, and via their free WiFi around the United States, it has so far not left the box of the technological elite.
Take a look at the image below to see how the Nexus One has done so far:
Of course, all the launches were different. The iPhone 3GS had two previous generations behind it. The Droid had a gigantic traditional marketing campaign to support it, and on and on. But that does not move the needle on the total Nexus One’s sold. It sits at 20,000.
Google needs to change something, quickly, or find itself the inventors of a loved mobile OS, and the producers of a much ignored phone. If this is actually a ‘superphone,’ Google needs to get to selling it.
I am pretty sure if the Nexus One would have reach Canada, it might have sell more.
At least one more : mine ;)
Hope you like it Ivan, it seems to be popular among us techies. I just worry about it not hitting the mass market.
And mine of course!! … iPhone will die soon! you will see! :)
Sitting on my cash right now … waiting for the Nexus One to be available in Germany :(
i am on instabuy steroids the moment it surfaces here.
That’s not at all fair. The Nexus One is essentially the 4th generation Android phone (in terms of significant models). 250,000 people bought the Droid (which was 3rd generation) – why would they then buy the NO two months later? Also, the NO is only available in a few countries. The iPhone 3GS was available in more on launch.
I can’t see that Google will care about these numbers at all – they’re in it for the long haul.
I believe that Google has started this race as a marathon, not as a sprint. With availability only in US currently, online selling w/o carrier contract, which is still awkward for Americans, etc. etc. this numbers are expected.
And one more buyer is waiting for Nexus One to come to Europe. :)
But, what has Google paid for marketing? We know parts cost about $174. HTC probably designed to meet Google’s desired specs. HTC adds some profit, in selling to Google, I presume. Google and T-Mobile must have made some sort of financial agreement, but perhaps its just strategic agreements. For example, Google makes money on phone sales and T-Mobile acquires new customer’s to sell service to and likely earns revenue from selling replacement insurance.
So, there’s $530 revenue and at least $174 in parts. Leaving about $360 in cash from transactions not involving new customers and upgrading services and contracts with termination fees… enough to analyze already without that!
I’m curious how much of that cash ends up with each player, and how much they choose to advertise (and by what media, like TV vs. Internet ads) and how much they take as profit.
Taking a step back, I’m wondering how all that compares to apple’s big marketing spends. Who’s gets a better return on their investment. And how risky is apples strategy of huge financial investment. Like, what would happen if apple spends its cash on the next iPhone and it only sells 20,000 units. Plus, Google’s viral marketing may prove successful and reach a large number of sales on low investment (other then resources dedicated to working on open source projects).
Plus, what happens if apple abandons the iphone for the islate, leaving a mass of disenfranchised iPhone users looking for a better device. Except of course for those that say they want more a bigger apps store, but only runs a couple apps that have android counterparts.
Finally, does Google pay an AdSense bill? What’s their RoI? And how does it compare to other AdSense marketing and traditional media.
Gotta wonder how many of these questions can even be answered. Regardless, idle thoughts keeping me up tonight created enough questions for twenty different blog posts I wont have time to research or write. So, searching for tweets on the topic lead me here.
All that to say thanks for the great read!
Posted via my nexus one so excuse the typos. I miss my g1′s keyboard!
:) Indeed.
You can have a friend in the UK order one for you.