I know that a fair few of you out there were pretty excited about the possibility of a follow up to the Nexus One (a Nexus Two as it became known), but today, the excitement dies.
Over the weekend, The Telegraph posted an interview with Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, and, in it, Eric said that they had achieved everything that Google had wanted to with the Nexus One, and, as such, won’t be doing a second one.
To quote:
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 criticised 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.
Sad news, right? Not really. The Nexus One was noteworthy for two reasons: 1) it was a stock-standard Android device, the model of which formed the basis for a whole bunch o’ high-end Android devices since, and 2) it was sold carrier-free.
I really doubt that it will be the last high-end stock-Android device, so the first point is moot, and, well, the carrier thing really ain’t that big a deal, is it? I mean, the phone is the important bit, right?
So, today we bury the Nexus Two rumours, but keep your chins up, folks, there will be another sexy piece of stock-Android hardware coming in the future, don’t you worry.
[via Slashgear]
This news is only not sad if Gingerbread delivers on its promise of obsoleting manufacturer skins over Android. That remains to be seen. HTC, Moto, and others have invested a lot in their skins and in PR to convince users that they add value to their phones. They won’t let them go easily.
I love my Nexus One in part because of the assurance that I’ll get timely OS updates from Google. Without a high-end phone that’s always at the latest version, what’s going to encourage phone manufacturers from keeping their phones up-to-date?
Also, Schmidt’s statement is the most transparent kind of corporate lie. “It was so amazingly great that we’re never, ever going do it again!” Right, Eric.
I have the Droid and love the stock Android interface. I was looking to upgrade to a 1GHz phone for a bit more speed, but I wanted to stick with Verizon because Tmobile service is crap in my town, and I am in a contract with VZW.
Looking at all the current phones out there I am only seeing the Nexus One as offering the stock Android interface. There should be more of them!
I would have gone with the Incredible, or the upcoming Droid 2, but they all have skins. I hope soon there is a 1GHz Android phone that is stock. Maybe I should just wait till 3.0 comes out and see how things shake down by the holidays…
If you are into Stock Android interface, LG has a few phones coming out.
They didn’t sell anywhere near the amount of nexus ones they wanted. It makes sense not to follow it up with another flop.
It was a flop because they didn’t advertise it.
It’s not a flop if it wasn’t meant to sell-ie no marketing push etc. It’s called strategy dipshits and when android surpasses iPhone by hrs end you will understand-maybe
And what strategy would that be? Keep Android and Nexus One to the geek market only?
As for Android surpassing iPhones – that’s unlikely to happen until Google starts actively advertising Android. Until then, the regular consumer isn’t going to know or care about Android.
Ask a non-geek what an iPhone is, what a Blackberry is, and what Android is and you’ll see that most of them don’t know anything about Android.
So if Google’s strategy was to simply sell the Nexus One to geeks, then they’ve succeeded. If the idea was to compete with Apple in the mass market, then they’ve failed miserably.
i agree that it failed miserably but it didnt open the door for phones like evo, droid x, and mytouch slide, and the new garminfone, all of which are the big frontrunners of the american cell providers, hell even att came out with the new aria which is basically an evo with smaller screen. i would say that android is better than ios4 but you are right about advertisement, and the app quality on android is lacking while usefullness of alot of them isnt.
did* open the door (edit)
This phone did not fail. Not exactly. Its sad to think that Google might not make another phone, or at least make one its official successor when the time is ripe.
I honestly think that right now there probably is not a plan to produce another official Google handset, but as hardware becomes more intense, I think that will change.
If not, I know that I will end up looking closest at the phones on Verizon, they have the best overall lineup so far.