If there is one thing that you can say about Google, they don’t tend to hang on to bad ideas very long. They have decided to stop selling the Nexus One online. The question for me, however, is, if the Web Store is a bad idea, or, just a horribly implemented one?
My money is on the later, but, Google has decided to just scrap their Web Store and focus on selling devices directly through the carriers and retail stores. One has to wonder if the Google Nexus One will end up being the Google Nexus Only One?
[Via Engadget]
Badly implemented idea. I left a longer comment on Simple Mobile Review but if Google would have put these phones in Best Buy and Amazon, it would have been a huge success. Amazon is just another “web only” sales site but it would get more exposure. Best Buy would have been huge because people would have been able to put hands on the device. They could have had versions for all 4 major carriers right there in the store ready for purchase and supported by Google and not the carrier. Educate the employees to stress the fact that updates will be pushed directly from Google vs the Droid which will be lucky to see one or two updates over the lifetime of the phone. The Nexus One the other hand will receive every Google update, Verizon approved or not.
If they had some sort of support system in place rather than deferring the calls to HTC, I think it would have been somewhat successful. Issues with the N1 led to the low sales as well, but it was a sweet device outside those issues. I wouldn’t give up on the direct sales approach just yet, but come out more organized and provide better support. Before getting the Incredible, I was waiting for the N1 to come to VZW.