Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Verizon passes on Google phone - The Boston Globe

In fewer words: the Google Nexus One is a market failure, and carried a considerable opportunity cost for Google.  

Without a Verizon partnership, Google loses access to the carrier’s more than 90 million customers, potentially blocking the phone from gaining more widespread popularity and hurting its competition with Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

The breakdown of the deal signals Verizon may view Google as a competitor rather than a partner when it comes to Nexus One sales, said analyst Colin Gillis at BGC Partners LP in New York.

“It’s really a flop for Google,’’ said Gillis. “They paid a price to roll out their own branded phone — it’s a price of trust and relationship with some of the other players in the space.’’

Verizon passes on Google phone - The Boston Globe

2 comments:

NookSurfer said...

Good attempt by Google, it was their first shot at the market. I'm interested to see what they come up next and hopefully they've gained some knowledge.

pbokelly said...

Not sure you'd agree if you were a Nexus One 1.0 customer, and now stuck with a dead-end phone, HTC has very little incentive to try again with Google in this context, and I suspect most of the wireless service providers will also be a lot more apprehensive about engaging with Google on any Google-sold devices. Google probably also would have lost Motorola as an Android parter, if the Nexus One hadn't been a market failure.