Early Google phone sales lag iPhone - report

Google's initial sales of its Nexus One smartphone have significantly lagged the pace of Apple's iPhone and Motorola's Droid sales coming out of the starting gate, an analytics firm said.

According to a report by Flurry, Google sold roughly 135,000 of its new Nexus One phones in its first 74 days on the market.

By contrast, Apple sold 1 million of the original iPhones in the first 74 days, while Motorola sold 1.05 million Droid phones - which are based on Google's Android software - during the same timeframe.

The sales estimates, which Flurry said it based on software applications featuring its analytics technology that have been downloaded to most of the phones, suggests a less than stellar start to Google's plan to play a larger role in the mobile phone business.

Google launched the Nexus One phone, which it developed with handset manufacturer HTC of Taiwan, in January, marking the first time the giant internet search company had sold a hardware device directly to consumers.

But the Nexus One, unlike the iPhone or the Droid, can only be purchased on the web and is not available at retail stores. Google has also advertised the phone exclusively online, foregoing the high-profile television ad campaigns of the iPhone and the Droid.

Kaufman Brothers analyst Aaron Kessler said he would have assumed that Google would sell more than 135,000 units.

"Clearly Google is not spending a lot of money marketing it. It doesn't seem like Google has huge expectations on this one," said Kessler.

But he noted that Google's broader mobile strategy is to grow the overall base of devices from various manufacturers that use Google's Android smartphone software.

According to a recent report by comScore, the market share of Android-based smartphones in the US grew to 7.1 per cent in January from 2.8 per cent in October 2009.

By contrast, Apple's share grew at a much slower pace, reaching 25.1 per cent in January compared with 24.8 per cent in October.

Google was not immediately available for a comment.

The Nexus One is currently available in the US for US$179 (NZ$254) with a two-year contract from Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA, or US$529 (NZ$750) without a service plan.

Google has said that the phone will be available with US telco Verizon Wireless, the largest wireless carrier in the US, sometime in the spring. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group.

Flurry said it used the first 74 days of sales as a benchmark, since that was the timeframe that Apple initially announced it took to sell the first million iPhones in 2007. Since March 19 will mark the first 74 days of Nexus One sales, Flurry said it forecasted results for the last few days of the period.

- Reuters