by Craig Buck

Created on: July 21, 2010

Google has announced that it will no longer be selling it's Nexus One smartphone in the United States, citing poor sales for it's decision.  Google have just received their final batch of the phones from manufacturer, HTC, once those have been sold, the Nexus One will no longer be available for sale.  Existing users will still be entitled to full support for their devices and the Nexus One will still continue to be sold in the UK by the Vodafone provider.

So why did the Nexus One fail when the Android operating system is thriving?  Many experts are pointing the finger at the way Google sold the Nexus One.  It wasn't available in store, only online which gave it the distinct disadvantage that potential buyers could not go and see the phone before purchasing.  The hardware was obviously not a problem as the almost identical HTC Desire has enjoyed booming sales.  Android itself is not to blame, most of the major cell phone manufacturers, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and HTC are all adopting Android as the platform for their new range of phones.

When the Nexus One was released on January 5th 2010, Google branded it as a 'super phone'  whilst others labelled it as the original iPhone killer.  Sadly the Nexus One never quite lived up to this hype, only selling a reported 135,000 units in it's short life.  In terms of sales, the phone was a failure, in terms of showcasing the Android operating system, Google will argue that it has been a success and ultimately has achieved what it had set out to do which was to get the world to sit up and take notice of Android as an operating system to seriously rival Apple.

Because of it's open nature, a large proportion of early Android developers would have used the Nexus One as their development and testing environment before releasing their applications to the Android market.  Although it's life was a relatively short one, the Google Nexus One will still take its place in cell phone history.  The original Android phone has been the inspiration for other top quality handsets as it's build quality has never been in question and whilst the last one has now come off the production line, it's legacy will live on as the Android platform continues to go from strength to strength.

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