Nexus One sells only 20,000 phones its first week

If the nexus one had a $100 million ad campaign behind it like the Droid does I'm positive it would have sold a shit ton more. It would've also sold more if it had the same blind sheep followers that Apple does. To sell that many in the first week with no lead up and no marketing blitz is a great number.

I thought the Quarterly Earnings Statement for the Quarter ending June 2007 said that they sold 270,000 iPhones during the quarter. And the iPhone was launched on June 29th, which would mean that 270,000 phones were sold in a span of 2 days. I don't know how you came up with 10,000 units / day. That's about 135,000 units /day. 13x as much as Google's Nexus One, and it was a brand new unproven device segment (Sure you can cal it a smartphone, but it was unlike any other device on the market at the time).

Droid sold about 200000 in it's first weekend, and I think that's comparable to the iPhone 3G launch, where Apple sold out of over a million devices. In any case, these numbers don't matter. Phones in the market today are a lot better due to the iPhone, and iPhone is getting better every year due to competition from Android... May the best phone win.

I tink you should compare it against the iPhone 3G, not the original iPhone as that is a much closer match spec bs spec and time wise.

"Apple reports that one million iPhone 3Gs were sold in the phone’s first weekend – more than twice the originally predicted sales of 450,000."

So I would susspect neither the stood nor the Nexus One lived up to expectations of threir respective board members.

Does this mean that 1 in every 20,000 Nexus One users are Steve Wosniak!?

I don't see the Nexus launch as a failure at all.

"1st gen iPhone sold 10,000 a day" - so 70,000 after week 1 vs the 20,000 Nexus Ones? But how much did Google save on advertising with it's 'soft' launch? Seems like an even match on a balance sheet. Plus like other posters said, there are more good phones to tempt buyers these days. The smartphone market is more diluted than it was in 2007.

Last thing, the articles I've read credited only the T-Mobile sales/activations. What about all the unlocked phones going on AT&T?

I think this article just misses the point though.

Comparing original iPhone sales with current Nexus sales is meaningless.

To me, the problem for the challengers is how many iPhone users will switch? I'm sure there will be some. But not many.

Also, none of these other devices is an iPod. There really may be better smartphones, as a phone. But is it better at playing music, surfing the web and all the other things that the iPhone will do?

Finally, if the rumors are true and iPhone is made available later this year on Verizon, I think then you'll see just how dominant the iPhone is. I know many, many folks who haven't purchased an iPhone solely because they can't get it on verizon.

As for me, I've had two iPhones now and have a considerable investment in apps. I simply don't want to leave them behind and pay for their equivalents on a different phone. (sort of ironic, that. That's sort of the reason Macs couldn't ever overtake Windows in marketshare).

I'm not sure that Google is really trying to compete with Apple. At least not in the sense that they are trying to beat them in number of handsets sold. Remember that Google also has an operating system that is on lots of different phones, not just the Nexus One. Google is not the sole hardware manufacturer of Android devices, but certainly the Nexus One has helped hype up Android in general a little bit, even if the phone didn't sell like crazy. Remember also that the launch of the N1 was just as much about introducing the world to Android 2.1 as it was introducing the world to the N1. A lot of the features shown off by Google at that release were Android features, the Nexus One was just the first one to have them.
I think that if the quality and quantity of apps were there for the N1, I might consider buying one. Phones designed by HTC are certainly good looking and well built

Is The Nexus One available in stores? iPhone sales have always been encouraged by the lines of Apple fans lined up at the door on release day. It is then available in apple stores and ATT stores in every mall across the country. Ditto to a lesser extent for the Droid... As far as I know, the Nexus One is only available online through Google, and not set up on a nice display at the mall for me to play with....

What they call "game changing," you call a "soft launch" and I call a rookie mistake.

Make no mistake, their launch campaign was significant, not soft, in intentions. They assumed relying on sneak peek reviews, a TON of uninspired banner ads, and a unspectacular CES push would launch the "game changing" NexusOne. Their campaign didn't lack organization, a rallying call, a great product, or deep pockets. It did lack experience, savvy, effectiveness, and the execution to deliver on their own lofty promise.

The jury is still out on how much they "spent" on those banner ads (via their own media channels I'm sure) and the value of free press (which was impressive).
Regardless, soft launches are when you don't tell anyone in advance and just spring on us with out any advertising etc. It didn't work as they planned and it undersold. Their campaign was laconic and relied on early adopters' free press. Smart phones demand more consumer-facing advertising (vs. early adopter tech) thanks to RIM, Apple, etc. and you can't just rely on PR, lame banner ads, a list of impressive features, and the idea that that many people are chomping at the bit for a "game changing" version of the iPhone. That's a poorly executed launch strategy, not a soft-launch.

Google employees smart people, but not hiring a dedicated agency (like Apple, RIM, or Motorola et al) has held their initial sales in check and will continue to undermine their ability to sell as many it will take to change any game. They may be the most powerful online advertising media company, but they still have a lot to learn about effective retail advertising and selling a consumer product to the masses. What's makes google.com successful isn't necessarily the same formula that will make NexusOne successful. Regardless of features, carriers, technology, etc, they have to get it front of more people, more effectively.

And it will be interesting to see if they continue to learn and fulfill this consumer product execution strategy, vs. just build the OS. They certainly are capable of giving anyone a run if they choose.

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=141314

Well based on the comments i read so far I can safely assume that comparing two products by their sales in first week isn´t easy.

It´s true you cant really compare the sales numbers of the iPhone 3Gs to the Nexus One.
It´s also true that you can´t really compare the sales of the original iPhone to those of the Nexus One.

In every case the comparison is "not fair". But hey, this is not a Horse Race, those figures are just there to try to get any kind of comparison. And I guess it´s better then nothing. So really arguing about whether this is a fair comparison isn´t really getting us anywhere.

One other thing: Please refrain from using the "iPhone killer" phrase. It´s just as lame as "Google killer".