In an interesting turn of events, Google has just announced that it will soon stop selling its Nexus One Google Phone from its website and will revert to the standard method of selling via retail stores and carriers.
The company says “many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from.” something they aren’t able to get via Google’s unique method of selling direct from http://google.com/phone.
These are the important changes:
No More Web Store. Google will partner with retailers/phone companies to offer Nexus One to consumers through existing retail channels. We’ll shift to a similar model globally.
Web Store Will Become A Brochure Style Showcase. Once there is increased availability of Nexus One devices in stores, Google will stop selling via its web store, and will instead use it as an online store window to showcase a variety of Android phones available globally.
I think it’s safe to say Nexus One sales have not gone as planned. While Android as an OS has seen great success, even reportedly surpassing the iPhone in the US, the Nexus one as a product has sold rather poorly.
Numbers released by Flurry Analytics in March showed Google’s Nexus One had sold around 135,000 units in 74 days (the same amount of time it took the iPhone to hit a million). Not good when your device, whatever you’re calling it, is known as the “Google Phone”.
Still feel strongly that creating its own Google branded device was not a good idea although it hasn’t seemed to put a dampener on the number of Android phones being built. 65,000 Android devices are supposedly shipping every day according to Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.
Will we ever see Google retract its entire Nexus One concept/range and admit defeat in the handset game but settle for success with its Android OS?
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