DJTaurus

Despite ambitious plans earlier in the year to release a whole line of Nexus products--mainly smartphones--Google is now backing down and saying that the Nexus One will be the last product officially released as the Google phone. Google will still partner with other manufacturers in releasing Android smartphones, but the company will not release a branded product after the Nexus One stating that its strategy for the device was a success and there is no need for a successor product:

The idea a year and a half ago was to do the Nexus One to try to move the phone platform hardware business forward. It clearly did. It was so successful, we didn’t have to do a second one. We would view that as positive but people criticized us heavily for that. I called up the board and said: ‘Ok, it worked. Congratulations – we’re stopping’. We like that flexibility, we think that flexibility is characteristic of nimbleness at our scale.

The Nexus One didn't sell as well as many people had anticipated and Google's online-only strategy had limited the device's success. At one point, the Google Nexus One was said to be coming to all four major US carriers, but Sprint had backed down after the HTC EVO 4G was released and the Droid Incredible was a worthy alternative to the Nexus One that Verizon Wireless had cancelled its plans to offer the Google phone. So far, the only Android device to be offered on all four major US carriers would be the Samsung Galaxy S.

An official phone from Google does have its benefits. As a product that doesn't necessarily have to go through manufacturers and carriers, Google can push out updates faster and more quickly on its Nexus One product than for other devices. For instance, with the HTC EVO 4G, both Sprint and HTC must approve and coordinate an update, get HTC Sense to work with the new Android build, and then the update can happen only after vigorous testing and carrier certification. With an Android phone made by Google itself, the update can be rolled out quicker because there would be no customized UI or skin layer to test for compatibility and Google would only need to test to see how well the new OS software would work on the carrier's network.

Google Says No Nexus Two; Nexus One is Last of the Line

UrbanMuppet

Per request of a moderator I am no longer a contributing member. Account pending for deletion.

Last edited by UrbanMuppet; July 17th, 2010 at 12:19 PM.

nickdog670

Last of the Nexus line, not last of a phone branded by Google with an untouched OS.

HustlinDaily

nickdog, what is your source for that?

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ari-free

I'm glad nexus one wasn't successful. If it was, it would have killed android in the long run. The whole idea of android is that it spurs great competition. But if the makers of the OS also made the phone, there wouldn't be a level playing field and the other OEM's would have abandoned Android.

HustlinDaily

Ic what you are saying but I don't think by Google branding a phone, it would kill Android. There still will be competition given how large the OHA is, given how many different carriers offer different phones. The thing about Android is variety and even with the existence of the Nexus, it still existed.

It was nice to see a phone which was not attached to a single carrier, vanilla android, offered with no bloatware and constantly updated/supported.

I was one of the people hoping to get a Nexus Two.

Hoping one of the players in this game (doesn't have to be Google) comes out with something similar.

ari-free

It turned me off actually. I was all excited by Droid, not because it was the most amazing thing in the universe, but because it showed that Android can be in the big time and not just as a me2 mytouch budget phone. Then comes google...what the heck are they doing? Risking the trust of everyone who invested in Android for a t-mobile only phone? It was a nice phone but just another phone that wasn't going to make a difference (such as a Google ad-subsidized unlocked phone that used VOIP). Fortunately it didn't turn off the OEM's but it could have if Microsoft offered a better deal.