Why are tech writers so misinformed about Nexus 1?

[6tr6tr]

Aside from the tech specs they all get wrong, the *big* news going around is how Google has only sold 80,000 Nexus Ones despite all the "hoopla and hype." They compare this to the sales of Droid and Apple during their first month each.

Not a SINGLE article has mentioned that Google has done ZERO TV/cable advertising, almost no online advertising and that the phone is only sold online at google's (again) not well-advertised phone site.

Personally I think 80,000 phones sold with essentially zero advertising and only T-Mobile signed up for a lower-cost phone is pretty amazing. How much did Apple put behind the iPhone? $200 million? There are estimates that Verizon spent $100 per Droid on advertising (obviously that lowers with every Droid they sell after the ads die down). Google probably spent, what $1 million? Pretty impressive.

 

[null]

I agree the media seems to be throwing around a lot of misleading information. Google could not possibly have been expecting high sales from the get-go. The N1 uses GSM, so potential customers are limited to just T-Mobile and AT&T as carriers. You don't get the 3G with AT&T, which means it won't appeal to most AT&T customers. Hence, your available market is essentially T-Mobile customers and a small subset of AT&T customers. Also keep in mind that the N1 is a higher end model phone and most T-Mobile customers go with T-Mobile because of their lower prices. I believe the "T-Mobile launch" effectively was a dry run to get the kinks out and that sales will skyrocket as soon as the N1 is available on Verizon/Sprint as well as with full 3G on AT&T.

 

[Phil Nickinson]

Preach it. You're absolutely right.

Aside from the tech specs they all get wrong, the *big* news going around is how Google has only sold 80,000 Nexus Ones despite all the "hoopla and hype." They compare this to the sales of Droid and Apple during their first month each.

Not a SINGLE article has mentioned that Google has done ZERO TV/cable advertising, almost no online advertising and that the phone is only sold online at google's (again) not well-advertised phone site.

Personally I think 80,000 phones sold with essentially zero advertising and only T-Mobile signed up for a lower-cost phone is pretty amazing. How much did Apple put behind the iPhone? $200 million? There are estimates that Verizon spent $100 per Droid on advertising (obviously that lowers with every Droid they sell after the ads die down). Google probably spent, what $1 million? Pretty impressive.

 

[Steven58]

Aside from the tech specs they all get wrong, the *big* news going around is how Google has only sold 80,000 Nexus Ones despite all the "hoopla and hype." They compare this to the sales of Droid and Apple during their first month each.

Not a SINGLE article has mentioned that Google has done ZERO TV/cable advertising, almost no online advertising and that the phone is only sold online at google's (again) not well-advertised phone site.

Personally I think 80,000 phones sold with essentially zero advertising and only T-Mobile signed up for a lower-cost phone is pretty amazing. How much did Apple put behind the iPhone? $200 million? There are estimates that Verizon spent $100 per Droid on advertising (obviously that lowers with every Droid they sell after the ads die down). Google probably spent, what $1 million? Pretty impressive.

Bravo!!! well stated!

 

[6tr6tr]

Preach it. You're absolutely right.

LOL. Thanks. It is kind of weird, though, right? I have a feeling that part of why the Nexus One started out only on T-Mobile is because Google/HTC didn't want it to compete with Droid/Eris. I think once those phones play out, Google will have a CDMA version for Verizon. (I also think they wanted this to be a test run as well, to get all the kinks out on a smaller scale)

 

[doogald]

LOL. Thanks. It is kind of weird, though, right? I have a feeling that part of why the Nexus One started out only on T-Mobile is because Google/HTC didn't want it to compete with Droid/Eris. I think once those phones play out, Google will have a CDMA version for Verizon. (I also think they wanted this to be a test run as well, to get all the kinks out on a smaller scale)

Could be that Google wanted to reward both HTC and T-Mobile for agreeing to take on Android first, with last year's G1?

I think that many tech journalists are somewhat lazy. They see reports of "only" 80,000 handsets sold and they jump to the conclusions that they read along with those news reports, rather than thinking things through. I think that we're seeing a lot of that with the iPad announcement as well - lots of lazy reporting.

 

[ILoveBlythe]

Or they are just apple fanboys that believe apple is God and no one could possibly have a better mobile device than them, especially a advertising company. If Apple felt that Google wasn't legitimate competition to the iPhone, S. Jobs wouldn't be talking about them. When's the last time you heard Apple mention RIM?

 

[Jeremy]

Or they are just apple fanboys that believe apple is God and no one could possibly have a better mobile device than them, especially a advertising company. If Apple felt that Google wasn't legitimate competition to the iPhone, S. Jobs wouldn't be talking about them. When's the last time you heard Apple mention RIM?

Last time I heard Apple mention RIM was out of the mouth of Steve Jobs. Lets face it, all touchscreen smartphones will be compared to the most successful one at the moment, that just happens to be a Apple device at the moment. Whether I like anyone else like it or not. Just the way it is.

 

[dm33]

Aside from the tech specs they all get wrong, the *big* news going around is how Google has only sold 80,000 Nexus Ones despite all the "hoopla and hype." They compare this to the sales of Droid and Apple during their first month each.

Not a SINGLE article has mentioned that Google has done ZERO TV/cable advertising, almost no online advertising and that the phone is only sold online at google's (again) not well-advertised phone site.

Personally I think 80,000 phones sold with essentially zero advertising and only T-Mobile signed up for a lower-cost phone is pretty amazing. How much did Apple put behind the iPhone? $200 million? There are estimates that Verizon spent $100 per Droid on advertising (obviously that lowers with every Droid they sell after the ads die down). Google probably spent, what $1 million? Pretty impressive.

You have got to be kidding that there's no online advertising. Google... the most popular website on the web by far has been promoting it HEAVILY. No one could buy the advertising that Google has put forth with the Nexus One.

It does have lots of reasons not to buy it.
- Can't see it in a store.
- Only available through the cell phone company with the worst coverage.
- $530 for everything except one plan.
- Email support only with 2 day response time.
- Lots of press coverage about 3G problems, keyboard problems, lack of support.

 

[Steven58]

Hey, all this N1 "Hate" doesn't really matter. The Nexus line of phones will either carve out a place in history or they won't. My guess is that ...well... Now is the time to invest your money in Google, guys.

 

[Yahma]

It does have lots of reasons not to buy it.
- Can't see it in a store.
- Only available through the cell phone company with the worst coverage.
- $530 for everything except one plan.
- Email support only with 2 day response time.
- Lots of press coverage about 3G problems, keyboard problems, lack of support.

There was a recent Business Week article that stated AT&T had the worst overall customer experience of all the major Wireless Carriers. That means that even though T-Mobile may be behind AT&T in number of subscribers, they are more satisfied than AT&T users, whom are used to frequent dropped calls and slow/inconsistent 3g & data services due to the iPhone hogging all the available bandwidth.

That being said, I don't think that launching on T-Mobile hurt the Nexus One sales.

 

[DrewCSchultz]

I got a Droid on launch day and returned it on launch day. I've got ocd when it comes to my tech purchases, and something just didn't sit right with the hardware keyboard. I didn't like it, so I didn't use it, and my phone was a tad bit thicker because of it, so I returned it. I know I'm crazy.

When I heard about nexus one I flipped. When it dropped I canceled my Verizon contract and got it. I love my nexus one. Coming off of the BB storm, its the next best thing to sliced bread.

There's only one problem: I bought the phone without ever looking at t mobiles coverage map. Turns out I don't get 3g hardly ever where I'm from. I browse the web a lot in my office, and edge speeds are not cutting mustard. A lack of 3g completely cripples Google navigation. I'm starting to miss Verizon.

 

[somanyphones]

i think most of these writers are jadaed from the beginning anyways .. critic on your own

 

[trevorwhopkins]

One slightly commercial point that I got to make here:

When has google cared about sales numbers, or anything money related? Besides the fact that every commercial company seeks to be successful and make money, yeah, but look at googles reasoning: they never enter a market they arent seeking to change. And changing how things work takes time, and costs money. I'm sure Google knew only selling it online from them was going to cut into sales. But it's something different. Like Android, the "free open OS." Like Chrome, the small efficient browser trying to face down the monopoly of IE. You guys think Google's going to rake it in with free navigation? Or helping manage your house's power grid? Who knows if the "don't be evil" mantra is BS or not? But evidence is evidence. Google likes to change stuff, doesnt really need money that much, and besides the marketing and involvement.... which is just like the G1 anyhow.... why is it "Google's" loss? Its an HTC phone! Uses HTC and industry standard, albeit class leading, technology. I think the hype here is a victim of itself.

 

[davej]

google sales

I guess my question would be if the nexus one is what google wanted it to be, why don't they advertise more. Without adverts they give the impression they are not proud of their product.

 

[z0phi3l]

I guess my question would be if the nexus one is what google wanted it to be, why don't they advertise more. Without adverts they give the impression they are not proud of their product.

Google's first ever TV ad was yesterday, and that was for their search, they don't care enough to spend money on advertising when name alone has gotten them where they are now

 

[arekieh]

One slightly commercial point that I got to make here:

When has google cared about sales numbers, or anything money related? Besides the fact that every commercial company seeks to be successful and make money, yeah, but look at googles reasoning: they never enter a market they arent seeking to change. And changing how things work takes time, and costs money. I'm sure Google knew only selling it online from them was going to cut into sales. But it's something different. Like Android, the "free open OS." Like Chrome, the small efficient browser trying to face down the monopoly of IE. You guys think Google's going to rake it in with free navigation? Or helping manage your house's power grid? Who knows if the "don't be evil" mantra is BS or not? But evidence is evidence. Google likes to change stuff, doesnt really need money that much, and besides the marketing and involvement.... which is just like the G1 anyhow.... why is it "Google's" loss? Its an HTC phone! Uses HTC and industry standard, albeit class leading, technology. I think the hype here is a victim of itself.

Google's first ever TV ad was yesterday, and that was for their search, they don't care enough to spend money on advertising when name alone has gotten them where they are now

/thread

 

[6tr6tr]

One slightly commercial point that I got to make here:

When has google cared about sales numbers, or anything money related?

Everything Google has done has been with a goal toward monetizing it (while also doing some cool things as well). Why do you think they're the first company to figure out a way to make BILLIONS on searching/online ads? Their search engine is incredible but the links you see are only partially shown because of their "place" in the internet, but also because of how much money they paid to be there. Yes, paying more money will get your ad/link/site moved up in the results.

They don't get into things to lose money.

 

[anon(6936)]

lots of lazy reporting.

so true. seems like the only thing 'journalists' do these days is repeat something they read on another blog. If you subscribe to a few tech blogs, it's funny to see how the news of something spreads. An article post somewhere and you'll be reading the same damn thing on every other site for the next 3 days. BGR comes to mind. Major media isn't much better.

 

[kgwyn#AC]

As a user, I really don't care what Google has in mind. I changed from BB Curve 8900 (great phone) to the Nexus because I wanted a better phone. The call quality is great, no dropped calls so far. I happen to be in one of the new T-Mobile 3G areas (Rock Hill, SC), and this phone is performing as advertised. I gave it a chance because it has the WiFi option. I will not have another phone without WiFi. I use WiFi at home, work and family locations to increase my service range. It is impressive the internet speed while on WiFi. The phone doesn't come cheap, but I think I got what I paid for. It is good enough that my wife had to have a Fender phone. Go Droid !!!!! Google Maps and supporting options are incredible. It is not as easy to use as the BB I had, but it is well worth going through the learning curve. The battery drains rather quickly, so I will be buying the extended life battery shortly.