Filed under: Retail, Odds and ends, iPhone
Nexus One sells only 20,000 phones its first week
Another "iPhone killer" has failed to deliver on its hype. According to mobile analytics firm Flurry, Google's Nexus One phone sold a mere 20,000 units in its first week in the market.The Flurry report goes on to compare the Nexus One launch with other smartphones, including the Motorola Droid, which sold 250,000 units in its first week. In its comparison to the iPhone 3GS launch, however, the report is a bit disingenuous. The iPhone 3GS was an update to an existing & wildly popular product, not a completely new product launch. In that light, the 1.6 million iPhones sold in the first week of the 3GS launch, while indeed 80 times the number of Nexus One sales, aren't a true apples-to-Apple comparison.
Instead, a better comparison may be to sales of the original iPhone. According to Apple's Q3 2007 results, released on 25 July 2007, the iPhone sold 270,000 units during the quarter. The original iPhone was released nearly a month earlier, on June 29. That works out to around 10,000 original iPhones sold per day following its 2007 release, which dovetails nicely with an early 2008 analysis of iPhone sales from Ars Technica. Far from the flabbergasting sales lead of the 3GS, the original iPhone sold about 3.5 times as many units in its 2007 launch as Nexus One did in 2010; also, the original iPhone sold for a hefty $599, even with an AT&T contract, while the Nexus One is $179 with a new T-Mobile contract ($529 without).
If anything, these numbers highlight the popularity of the Droid compared to the Nexus One. Droid sold nearly as many phones in its first week as the original iPhone sold in its first month, which is nothing to sneer at. By comparison to the Droid, however, the Nexus One launched with a whimper, not a bang.
Flurry notes, correctly, that the Nexus One launch has suffered low numbers in part because of Google's "soft launch" of the phone. Both Droid and the iPhone had aggressive marketing campaigns leading up to their respective launches, while the Nexus One has had to rely largely on industry hype and Google's own advertising. Nexus One also launched directly after the holiday season, which seems like a boneheaded move; a launch even three weeks earlier could have gained them much more robust sales. Google is also sort of "going its own" compared to Apple and AT&T's partnership with the iPhone and Verizon's vigorous hyping of Droid.
All these factors aside, both the low sales numbers and criticism of both the handset itself and Google's abysmal customer support boil down to one thing: while it may be a good phone on its own merits (or not), the Nexus One is no iPhone killer.
[Via The Business Insider]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
darrell said 10:03PM on 1-14-2010
only 20,000? that's a quite a lot during a recession.
Reply
Mona said 10:10PM on 1-14-2010
How many iPhones did Apple sell during the same period?
Jose said 10:12PM on 1-14-2010
@Mona,
As the article states, that's not a fair comparison. The better comparison is, as stated in the article above, the original launch of the iPhone, at 10,000 / day.
darrell said 10:13PM on 1-14-2010
@mona
sales of products don't have to 'beat' the sales of other products to be successful. for instance, we have no idea how many kindles have been sold, but it is a successful product.
Mitchell Scott said 10:24PM on 1-14-2010
I don't think you read the article. It said the Droid sold 250,000 during the first week. The Droid was released during a recession.
jack said 10:24PM on 1-14-2010
Based on what? We need more than your word.
Jordan said 10:33PM on 1-14-2010
@Mona:
And how hyped was the iPhone? Apple showed it off months before its release and people knew about it for a long time. Nexus One was announced...when it was released, aside from mumblings on tech blogs. Given that, I would say 20k the first day is quite impressive.
Jordan said 10:34PM on 1-14-2010
correction - I mean the first week.
mike said 12:04AM on 1-15-2010
you wanna compare it to the 2007 iPhone? huh?
the iPhone that inspired Android's existence?
Apple showed the industry how to make a phone, you can't ask for a bigger handicap in 2010.
Mr. Fry said 12:21AM on 1-15-2010
@Mike
Android was in development before the iPhone was launched.
Ari said 9:50AM on 1-15-2010
I think the Nexus One/iPhone 3G comparison is a little less black and white than TUAW would like to paint. Maybe OS X mobile (or wetf its called) vs. Android. Besides, the fight is still quite young. You gotta give the masses time to become frustrated by a decidedly less open and more frustrating experience to the better machine. Just ask Apple how long its taken to slowly chip away at Window's dominance. Only, in this case, Apple has the inferior product (spec-wise, and open-source wise).
Andrew said 4:59PM on 1-15-2010
Okay, this is a few days old, I know, but let me address a few issues.
First, the 3GS is a pointless comparison. It's released worldwide, and is the third version of a phone that revolutionized cell phones. Of course it had more sales than a new phone, so for the sake of my points below, I will only be talking about the ORIGINAL iPhone in comparison.
First, when the iPhone came out, it was the first phone of it's kind. Sure, there were other smart phones, Windows Mobile sucked just like it does now, Blackberrys have always been questionably smart to me, regardless, none of them did it in a nice clean consumer friendly package. Now, when the Nexus One is coming out, it has a nice package of features, but it isn't anything spectacularly new to us anymore. To put it best, we may want the Nexus One, but we aren't rushing out the door right now to buy it, because our iPhones or whatever will hold us over until end of contract, etc.
Most importantly, the Nexus One had zero advertising. This is HUGE. The phone went on sale the day it was announced by Google, and that's when it's timer started. The iPhone was announced 5 MONTHS before it went on sale. That was 5 months of media attack regarding the iPhone. 5 months of pictures, and videos, and demos, etc, etc. 5 months for people's contracts to expire and wait for it. That was 5 months of people jumping on the iPhone. The Droid didn't have that much time, but they announced about a week in advance, and had a commercial in every single commercial break during that week to advertise it.
And finally, lets look at the network comparison. The Nexus One was released on T-Mobile which has one of the worst networks, and about a third of the subscribers of Verizon or AT&T, AND, to make matters worse, it was announced for Verizon as well. So anyone wanting the Nexus One AND good service, will probably wait until it's out on Verizon.
So, for all of these reasons, you can see why the numbers comparisons don't really work here. There will likely never be an iPhone killer phone, because the iPhone is one phone, where Android, for example, can be any number of phones on any carrier. As I see it, Android will overtake iPhone users, and in a very short period of time, maybe a year or two, but it won't be one phone that does it, it'll be the fact that anyone can get any kind of phone they like with Android, and on any network.
And I think that's the longest comment I have (and maybe anyone has) ever posted. Just my thoughts on the whole thing.
Andrew said 5:02PM on 1-15-2010
Oh, I guess it was just posted last night, not a few days ago, haha. My concept of time is way off right now, and I though it was like the 17th or something. My apologies!
MRBlue said 9:18PM on 1-16-2010
@ Mr. Fry
Exactly, the Android OS was in development BEFORE the iPhone was launched, which would imply that the iPhone was already in development before the Android (watch the keynote; Apple had been working on the iPhone for 2 years) and the fact that it was STILL in development AFTER the iPhone was launched giving them the advantage of watching what Apple had to offer.
My can only assume that you're grasping at straws to somehow suggest that Google is more advanced than Apple and the iPhone.
I would say you're delusional but that doesn't quite tell the whole story.
A said 10:25PM on 1-14-2010
"If anything, these numbers highlight the popularity of the Droid compared to the Nexus One. Droid sold nearly as many phones in its first week as the original iPhone sold in its first month, which is nothing to sneer at."
Comparing the original iPhone and the Droid is Apples and Oranges as well. Droids were subsidized while the iPhones were selling for 599!! And the Droid is hardly a "completely new product launch". It was a new evolution of an established product line of Android handsets. The iPhone was a completely new piece of hardware and software environment. The Droid really did nothing new.. just better... Like the 3gs
Reply
Mitchell Scott said 10:29PM on 1-14-2010
While I agree that the Droid didn't necessarily do anything new, it was, for all purposes, a completely new product launch. Compared to previous Android phones, the Droid received a LOT more attention from the media (thanks to Verizon spending millions on advertising). Also compared to older Android devices, there were a ton of improvements for the user. On the other hand, the Nexus One had a huge buildup among us geeks, but I'm willing to bet that the general public doesn't have a clue that the phone even exists.
hmlong said 4:08AM on 1-15-2010
One could make a case that the Droid and other Android phones are the real reason behind lackluster sales of the Nexus.
Why? Because all the early adopters bought into the G1 and Droid and are now locked up in contracts, leaving fewer unencumbered Linux open-source geeks to buy the Nexus.
Dax said 10:32PM on 1-14-2010
While I know this post is about the Nexus One handset, I'm going to state the obvious: Both the Nexus One and Droid run Google's Android OS, so looking at the combined sales numbers (as that of others) is a real indicator of where the "war" will end up. It's about the software platform, not the handset.
Reply
montex said 10:59PM on 1-14-2010
I bought the 8GB 1st gen iPhone when released in June 2007 for $652.37 (with tax) and I had to sign a 2-year contract. And I waited 8 hours in line to do so.
Did anybody wait in line to buy the Google phone? (hint: nope.)
I'd like to know who seriously thinks the google phone is an iPhone killer.
Reply
Mr. Fry said 12:18AM on 1-15-2010
For one, the one is only sold online by Google so obviously no one stood in line.
For two, I'd like to never hear the phrase iPhone killer again. It's a good phone in its own right, and that's all it needs. No phone is ever going to singlehandedly dethrone the iPhone, and the iPhone will not crush Android, WebOS, or Winmo. If that was going to happen it would have happened. There is room in the market for more than one solution, so please stop acting like something that doesn't decimate the iPhone week one is a failure.