Google To Stop Selling Nexus One Online; Will Let Carriers Do The Work

All good things must eventually end, and all not-so-good things must end even sooner. Google has never shied away from trying new things; innovation runs in the company's blood, and they obviously tried something very new with the launch of the Nexus One. It was the company's first smartphone, and even though it was built by HTC, it was Google's baby. They labeled it, they sold it, and they cared for it. They even attempted to deal with the technical support side, which went south as soon as many early adopters began having issues with 3G.


Today, Google has decided to leave the tech support, and most every other aspect of phone sales, to the American carriers. Launched for T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon (though canned on the last two), the phone has since feel behind in terms of sheer luster, with the Droid Incredible surpassing it. Still, the phone will live in history as the Googlephone, and seeing Google hang up the sales of it is big news.

Google admitted this week that selling the phone themselves didn't work out as well as they had hoped, and people still prefer an in-store, hands-on experience with a smartphone before they buy it. Allowing the carriers to handle sales gives people this opportunity, and it also distances Google from the typical troubles of dealing with the public. Will Google ever make another phone? Maybe, but it's safe to say it'll be limited by whatever carrier agrees to carry it. It's a shame for those who prefer to buy unlocked phones, but considering how much trouble Google had with this experiment, it's probably for the best.

Nexus One Changes:

More retail availability. As we make Nexus One available in more countries we’ll follow the same model we’ve adopted in Europe, where we're working with partners to offer Nexus One to consumers through existing retail channels. We’ll shift to a similar model globally.

From retail to viewing. Once we have increased the availability of Nexus One devices in stores, we'll stop selling handsets via the web store, and will instead use it as an online store window to showcase a variety of Android phones available globally.

Innovation requires constant iteration. We believe that the changes we're announcing today will help get more phones to more people quicker, which is good for the entire Android ecosystem: users, partners and also Google.