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Friday, May 7, 2010

Google Nexus One: quarterback or cheerleader?

Mark Bridge writes:

Four months ago, Google unveiled a new way for consumers to buy an Android mobile phone. In fact, that’s pretty much what the first line of the press release said. The phone was the Nexus One and it was being sold online by Google.

You could buy it SIM-free or you could buy it with a contract – but you’d be buying it from Google’s online shop. You couldn’t buy it on a real high street.

But now that’s all changed. First came the announcement that Vodafone UK would be selling the phone themselves from the end of April – and now from today Phones 4U is also selling the Nexus One.

Google isn’t describing this as any kind of turnaround or failure. When it’s talked about the situation it’s said it’s doing this to get more Nexus One phones to more people more quickly. Which, of course, you might think it could have done by working more closely with those channels in the first place.

So what’s happened?  Is this all about shifting more devices?  Well, Google’s never said the Nexus One was going to be a big seller, which is just as well because reports suggest that Google is still a long way off hitting a million units. Goldman Sachs said in March it now estimated 1 million units for this year, having previously anticipated 3½ million.

Okay – so is it an admission that networks know best?  They’ve got the end-to-end infrastructure in place, which is a pretty big contrast with the online-only customer service offered when the Nexus One was launched. That didn’t go down well with quite a few buyers.

Is it part of a realisation that Google really doesn’t want to be seen as a rival to mobile manufacturers and networks? As CEO Eric Schmidt said at Mobile World Congress, it wants to work with them.

Or is it none of these – and is it instead a genuine success as an ambassador for the Android operating system?  Google says the Nexus One has been profitable – and since it went on sale, Android’s share of the US and UK smartphone markets has picked up pretty dramatically.

Over here, GfK Retail and Technology says the proportion of Android phones sold on pay monthly contracts rose from 3% to over 12% during a recent four week period. Okay, that’s just four weeks – but it could be a sign that the Nexus One isn’t what we thought it was. Perhaps (to use an analogy from American Football) it was never going to be a star quarterback. Perhaps it was only ever intended to be a cheerleader.

 

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1 comments on article "Google Nexus One: quarterback or cheerleader?"

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James Rosewell

5/10/2010 7:24 AM

Google want to have a "best practice" reference implementation of the Android operating system that they're in control of in order to showcase their services. Against this objective the Nexus One has been very good. It's a shame they've not updated it with some of the new services the HTC Desire Android implementation has such as an Activesync enabled calendar and scrolling wallpaper.

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Opinion Articles

Last week at The Fonecast: 28th November 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

The really big news last week wasn’t good: 17,000 jobs worldwide are being lost at Nokia Siemens Networks (which, incidentally, is a separate company from both Nokia and Siemens). That’s not far short of a quarter of the total workforce. The company is going to focus on mobile network infrastructure and services, with a particular emphasis on mobile broadband, and is likely to sell off other parts of the business.

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Shared data tariffs, bill shock, net neutrality and mobile traffic management

Mark Bridge writes:

Today’s mobile phone customers want more and more mobile data, which is stretching network capacity. In addition, many of those consumers would rather not be committed to a limit; they’d rather have a mobile internet tariff that is (or appears to be) unlimited. This puts even more pressure on mobile networks.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 21st November 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

Having read some of last week’s headlines, you might think the UK’s Communication Ombudsman has told mobile phone networks not to describe their data tariffs as ‘unlimited’ unless they really are. However, what’s actually happened is that one of the UK’s communication ombudsmen (ombudspeople?) has asked mobile operators to be clear about any limits, to stop unexpectedly high bills from building up and to tell customers before they exceed any limit. Better than nothing but hardly earth-shattering.

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Top 5 Productivity Apps for Business Owners

Ruben Corbo writes:

As a business owner, you know that being out of the office can cost you customers and productivity. However, in this digital age being out of the office doesn’t mean that you have to be away from your business. By downloading apps specifically for business, you can be productive from anywhere. Here are my top 5 apps for mobile business productivity.

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Enterprise user, you are the weakest link...

Mark Bridge writes:

Any security process is only as strong as the weakest link. That’s something of a truism. And for many organisations, the weak link is most likely to occur when information leaves the office. Which means it’s often caused by the user’s mobile phone or the user themselves.

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