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.

Originally Posted by 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.

[Steven58]

Originally Posted by 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.

Bravo!!! well stated!

[6tr6tr]

Originally Posted by Phil Nickinson

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]

Originally Posted by 6tr6tr

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.

[Moto1907]

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 Sikora]

Originally Posted by Moto1907

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.