Nexus D’oh!
I owned the hottest Android-based smartphone for exactly 33 days. Today, Google announced the Nexus One Android phone. Google created (now administered by Open Handset Alliance) the free, open-source smartphone operating system, called Android. Multiple phone manufactures build Android-based smartphones, but Google stayed out of the hardware business until now. I own the Motorola Droid. Motorola has a massive marketing campaign pitting the Droid against Apple’s iPhone, and by the reaction of my friends to my new phone, it appears that the marketing is paying off. People know the Droid, and it selling very well. Technology moves very fast, and I knew that I wouldn’t have the leading-edge phone for very long, but 33 days?!
Google will really blow the wind out of Motorola’s sales with the Nexus One. The Nexus One is thinner, faster, and has a better screen than the Droid (and the iPhone!). Nexus also has specific hardware and software features like 3D and voice to text for all input fields. Not to mention, that when people think about the iPhone’s biggest competition from now on, it will be the Nexus One.
This always happens to me. I purchased a 2009 Volkswagen Rabbit (AKA Golf). I really wanted a Mazda3, but Mazda was going to release a new generation Mazda3 in 2010, and I didn’t what to have an ‘old’ car after just a year. I read on car blogs that Volkswagen takes a long time between introducing new models, and the next Rabbit wasn’t due for at least a couple of years. I even asked the dealer (after I bought the car), and he said we wouldn’t see the next generation Rabbit for a few years. Eight months after I purchased the Rabbit, VW introduced the next generation 2010 Golf (they dropped the Rabbit name and went back to Golf). It isn’t so bad. The new version looks pretty much like mine, but it gets better mileage, and the interior noise has been reduced.
I’m not buying a new car, but maybe I can upgrade somehow to the Verizon version of the Nexus One that’s due in the Spring. I could just learn to live with it and enjoy what I have…naaaaah! That’s not going to happen.
January 16th, 2010 - 12:09
I wouldn’t be so sure about Google beating out Motorola or Apple. Google rules the search engine space, people need to look for something on the web, they use GOOG. If people need a phone, Apple and Motorola are known brands in that space. For a company to create a wormhole from one space to another is difficult in a crowded universe where the need to compartmentalize and segment is huge in order to avoid chaos. So, a cognitive disconnect may occur when the powerful but web-based Google brand name/image is seen on a physical item not normally seen in the eyes of the compartmentalizing consumer. It’s a matter of trust. I know apple makes awesome gadgets. I know motorola can make a decent phone. Google making hardware? Not sure.
It’s kinda like Madonna trying her hand at Broadway. How’d that go?
February 8th, 2010 - 20:41
Looks like you were right (so far). Check out my latest post Nexus D’oh! II