Some people study box scores for baseball as a hobby & others like myself keep tabs on the telecom industry [being a die-hard Met fan may have something to do with it but that's another post]. At any rate, because I'm long overdue for a new phone, a few days ago I went hunting online to find out if a rumor I'd heard a couple of months ago was indeed going to become fact & was surprised by what I found instead. I had heard that Google had decided to let T-Mobile, it's provider for the Nexus One sell the phone as well. You may recall that the Nexus One arrived with banner reviews as the sure “iPhone killer”. I discovered that once again, gossip is well, gossip & definitely not reality because to my surprise & dismay, I learned that Google was killing the phone all together. I knew the Nexus One had customer relations issues but I didn't expect it to be like the Microsoft Kin: here today, gone tomorrow.
Anemic Sales Will Kill Any Product
Google clearly mishandled the sales & customer service part of things perhaps partially in an over-zealous desire to beat Apple at it's own game. However, the phone itself received pretty solid reviews; in fact in some quarters it received rave reviews so what happened? It would seem that the bottom line is sales: the phone looked awfully good but it sold a fraction of what the new iPhone 4 has sold already & the Nexus One has been out much longer.
Raw Numbers Don't Tell The Whole Story
Numbers may have driven Google's decision but I don't think it tells the whole story. Here's what I think. Google's first mistake was deciding to sell the phone online itself, while diverting hardware issues to HTC, the company that actually made the phone, & sending provider issues to T-Mobile. They should have handed the whole thing to T-Mobile, a company who is in the business of selling phones & supporting them. No one wants to wait 24 hours to have a question about their phone answered in an email & you can only do so much with YouTube instructional videos. What Google got instead was a case study in diffusion of responsibility because their 3-prong strategy turned out to be a be a customer service disaster with the consumer left “holding the bag.”
The Droid Factor
Another issue, which I call the "Droid-factor," is a happier "problem" to have because it has been a boon for Google's Android operating system. Basically, the Nexus One was designed to be the premier Android phone but was beat to the punch by the equally elegant Droid, which came out first. The Droid has taken off becoming a wildly successful phone for Motorola & Verizon. It may have rendered the Nexus One un-necessary out of the starting gate because it has become such a solid head-to head competitor with the iPhone. I also think it's a matter of time before other Android based phones are knocking at the iPhone's door. In short, Google should remain focused on Android because there is no need for it to step into foreign territory to make a phone when its more experienced telecom partners are already on it. They may have decided to cut their their losses with the Nexus One but Android is doing just fine.