Just 20,000 Nexus Ones Sold. Does It Matter?

Jan 13 2010, 10:27am CST | by Robert Evans

Analysts at Flurry (via Electronista) have estimated around 20,000 sales of the Nexus One in its first week. These are decent numbers for a normal mobile release, but not for a high-end smartphone with as much buzz behind it as the Nexus One. No one expected the Nexus One to outsell the iPhone (or even come close) but the fact that it is lagging so far behind the technologically inferior Droid is seen as worrisome.

There are a lot of possible reasons for lackluster sales of the Nexus One. To start them off, advertising and marketing on this device has been rather subdued. Sure, there's a link on the main page of Google, but how many TV ads and magazine ads and pop-ups have you seen for the Nexus One compared to, say, the Droid?

T-Mobile is another issue. They're far from the largest U.S. carrier and they don't have nearly the marketing muscle or the reach of, say, Verizon. I think the Nexus One's biggest "opening weekend" is going to come when Verizon starts carrying it.

In the end though, I don't think Google launched the Nexus One in order to rake in the dough. I'm sure they'll still make a pretty penny off of it, but their main focus in launching this device seems to be to nudge the industry forward. Google built a phone with every damn bell and whistle they could think of adding in. That was their way of telling other manufacturers to step up.

The gap between Android smartphones and the iPhone has been narrowing over the last year. The Nexus One comes closer than any other device out there, but it's still not there yet. It may take another manufacturer's device to bridge that chasm...or it may just take the Nexus Two.

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Robert Evans
The excitement about new smartphones, tablets and anything mobile drive Robert to unearth the latest rumors and developments in this fast moving space. He adopted 4G as soon as it become available and knows where the mobile market is going.
Robert can be contacted directly at robert@i4u.com.