Nexus One

Published on May 14, 2010 by Admin · No Comments

Google announced Friday it would be closing the online store for its Nexus One smartphone, in a calculated shift that signals failure of its effort to market the device directly to consumers over the Web.

Google will now rely on traditional retailers to sell its mobile smartphone, which was unveiled in January amid fanfare but was available only at the Nexus One online store.

Google had hoped to establish its online store as the only place to buy the smartphone, but consumers didn’t embrace the idea of buying a phone without any hands-on experience.

“As with every innovation, some parts worked better than others,” Google vice president of engineering Andy Rubin said in a blog post. “While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the Web store has not.”

Rubin said it is “clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from.”

When the Nexus One was launched in January, Google gave consumers the option of buying the phone on the Web and then finding a telecom carrier. However, Google’s plans were dealt a huge setback as two of the top carriers, Sprint and Verizon, refused to offer the Nexus One.

Rubin said that Google will now offer the Nexus One through traditional retail channels. “Once we have increased the availability of Nexus One devices in stores, we’ll stop selling handsets via the Web store, and will instead use it as an online store window to showcase a variety of Android phones available globally,” Rubin told AFP.

Although Google does not release sales figures on its Nexus One, it is reportedly trailing way behind the iPhone, Motorola Droid, and other handsets. Android devices as a whole, however, are doing well according to Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.

Schmidt told shareholders on Thursday that mobile-phone makers were shipping more than 65,000 Android-powered devices a day. Android is now being used on 34 models of mobile device in 49 countries and “is going to be either the number one or number two player” in the mobile phone market, he said.

A report by NPD Group earlier this week said that Android became the second most popular smartphone operating system in the United States during the first quarter, behind Research in Motion (RIM). The group says the growth has displaced Apple’s popular iPhone for the first time. Apple, however, has disputed the findings.

“There’s clearly an appetite, and there’s clearly traction in the Android device area,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler.

Google’s strategy to procure a strong presence in the fast-growing smartphone industry is critical. “Google’s entire philosophy around mobile is they want to make sure that they’re the default search engine as users transition from PCs to mobile for Web browsing. That’s the overall strategy,” Sandler told Reuters.

The fact that Google did not heavily promote the Nexus One may have limited its sales. Analysts estimate that Google sold, at most, 200,000 Nexus One phones during the first quarter. By contrast, Apple sold more than a million iPhones in its first quarter opening in 2007.