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A new report from mobile analytics firm Flurry reveals some interesting numbers about Google's first attempt to sell its own custom branded Android device, an HTC-built phone called the Nexus One. It's a flop. After 74 days, the same amount of time it took the original iPhone to sell its first million units, the Nexus One sold only 135,000. But before you read too much into these numbers, thinking that it has any meaning with regard to the Android ecosystem as a whole, think again. Android market share is growing fast - it more than doubled from September to December of last year, for example. Oh, and the Droid, Android's fastest-selling phone to date ? It actually beat the iPhone by day 74, Flurry says. All this new data shows is that Google is no Apple when it comes to marketing their own device. Sponsor iPhone Killer? Hardly In January of this year, Google hosted a press event to showcase their new Nexus One phone, a HTC device sold exclusively by Google on its own website in both a carrier-specific and unlocked version. When asked if the new phone was meant to be an iPhone killer, Google's Director of Mobile Platforms Andy Rubin simply replied that "choice is a good thing." Prior to its launch, many technology insiders suspected (or rather, hoped) that the new "Google phone" would be exactly that - a killer , the first real rival to challenge Apple's dominance in the smartphone market. With features like support for multitasking, Google's own GPS navigation application, Google Voice (the VoIP app Apple banned from iTunes), a 3D photo gallery and, of course, heavy integration of Google services, the Nexus One had a feature lineup that Apple's iPhone couldn't beat. Why Did the N1 Flop? So what happened? Why don't the sales numbers match up with the excitement surrounding the device? The problem likely has to do with the fact that the phone is sold online only. You can't march into a store and purchase a Nexus One and, apparently, that's how most customers want to shop. Another problem is that the U.S. carrier for the N1 is T-Mobile, a much smaller network than either AT&T (iPhone) or Verizon (the Droid). Also, the N1 isn't available worldwide like the iPhone is. However, don't count the N1 out just yet. According to Google's website , it will arrive on Vodafone in Europe by Spring 2010 and, in the U.S., Verizon will get a version of the device at the same time. Given how well the Droid has done for Verizon, the Nexus One may have a shot at boosting its sales soon. Meanwhile, Android, as a platform, is doing quite well even if the Nexus One isn't. The Droid recently became the fastest-selling Android phone to date, beating the sales of the myTouch 3G by more than four times, the Android market share has been growing by leaps and bounds, Android's application store is now the second largest , second only to Apple's iTunes and finally, some companies found their Android website visitors increasing by as much as 350% over the past year. In the end, the Nexus One may not have succeeded the way Google had hoped, but clearly, Android itself has. Discuss
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Nexus One Flopped, but Android Didn't
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To all those companies and developers focused exclusively on iPhone apps: Watch your back. The Android platform is catching up, and none too slowly. As Android's growth continues to explode since the release of the Droid, only the most foolish of app shops are not planning to expand beyond Apple's walled garden. One developer, in fact, wrote that his app, which was showing modest, double-digit daily sales late last year, now reports that his app is making $13,000 a month. When that kind of opportunity exists for a single app, why would developers put all their eggs in one basket, a.k.a. the "Jesus phone"? Sponsor A few weeks ago, we told you, "As of December 2009 4 percent of all smartphone owners now use a phone running some version of the Android OS. That's an increase of 200 percent since the previous survey released in September. "Respondents were also asked about their plans to purchase a smartphone in the future. Among those who planned to purchase within the next 90 days, 21 percent said they would now choose Android." It's this growth that helped fuel the success of Eddie Kim's app, Car Locator. In a blog post today, the developer revealed that his Android app "started as a little side-project while I was vacationing with my family, turned into a few extra bucks for lunch money every day has continued its upward trend and is now beyond my wildest fantasy of what could have been possible. " Car Locator is a pretty simple application: Users save their location when they park their cars, and the app navigates them back to their cars later. The app was available in free and paid versions with varying feature sets. The paid version originally sold for $1.99, and the price was later increased to $3.99. Kim has done no marketing for the app, but it did win third place in Google's Android Developer Challenge 2 . When Motorola's Droid was released, Kim saw his first major spike in sales: "In the first 2 months, the app saw sales of about $5-6/day. Nothing too fancy," he wrote . "But starting November 7, there's been a significant uptick in sales, peaking on November 9, where the app saw $44 in sales. Sales have since settled to about $20/day, but it's probably too early to tell if this will hold." Little did Kim realize that his sales had just begun. To date, the free app has been downloaded 70,000 times, with paid app sales at about 10 percent of that figure. "The application was netting an average of about $80-$100/day, until it became a featured app on the Marketplace. Since then, sales have been phenomenal, netting an average of $435/day, with a one day record of $772 on Valentine's Day. Too bad I didn't have a Valentine's date this year - we would've gone somewhere real special!" (Catch that, ladies?) Kim also stands by the Android platform, saying, "Some may be quick to point out that a featured Android application is only able to net $400/day, while top iPhone apps make thousands However, I still think that Android is only a fraction of what it will eventually become . Each release of a new Android handset gets me excited, as it means a wider reach for the Marketplace." Folks, if you've been longing for a much-hyped app to make its way to the Android Market, forward this article to the developers and marketers in charge. There's money to be made there, and the userbase is only getting bigger. Discuss
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Watch Out, iPhone Devs: One-Man Android App Nets $13K Monthly
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