Flurry goes on to explain these stats in greater detail:

While Flurry estimates that Nexus One was outsold by Droid by more than 12 times, myTouch 3G by 3 times and iPhone 3GS by a staggering 80 times, it’s worth noting there are significant differences in the marketing, distribution and perception of the device as revolutionary vs. evolutionary. In short, key business decisions and other factors related to the Nexus One launch make an “apples-to-apples” comparison difficult.

As a product, the Nexus One boasts the most advanced Android OS to date as well as unique features, such as Google Voice and Google Maps. However, potentially due to the heightened “promise” created by early buzz, the handset has ultimately fallen short on sales expectations. Without the “wow factor” now expected with each new challenger to the iPhone, especially the first smartphone with Google’s own branding, demand generation has been modest.

I agree with Flurry’s assessment above and later in the post where they note the challenge Google faced in not having any brick and mortar channels to push the Nexus One through. Google clearly knows search, but they seem to have a thing or two to learn when it comes to selling physical goods to consumers.

Perhaps it doesn’t really matter; I would wager that most of us use Google’s apps, regardless of the platform, e.g. iPhone, Android, etc.

To those of you who are kind enough to read my ramblings, what are your thoughts? Why are sales so low? Was Santa (or your preferred fictional, gift-giving character) doling out mobile devices this year, leaving the potential Nexus One customer pool dry? Something else?

Much Love,

– RP

Regardless, the stats are quite telling. Below you’ll find thoughts and a chart from Google’s newest toy, AdMob:

US leads Android adoption:  90% of Android traffic was in the US in December, up from 84% in October.  Top countries by requests are the US, UK, Germany, France, and Canada, respectively.

Rapid growth: Worldwide requests from Android devices increased 97% from October to December. AdMob received over 1 billion ad requests from Android devices in Dec 09.

Increased manufacturer diversity:  In October, 98% of requests came from HTC devices.  In December, 56% of requests were from HTC devices, 39% from Motorola devices, and 5% from Samsung.

Increased device diversity: In December, 7 devices generated more than 3% of requests each: the Motorola Droid, HTC Dream, HTC Magic, HTC Hero, Motorola CLIQ, HTC Droid Eris, and the Samsung Moment.  This is up from only 3 devices in October HTC Dream, HTC Magic, and HTC Hero).

Droid Invasion:  The Motorola Droid is already the leading Android handset in the AdMob network and generated 30% of requests in December.

Stats making you yawn? Well, here’s the chart…

Lastly, if you’re curious as to what method AdMob uses to interpret their statistics, read this.

G’night!

– RP

Before we get to the fanfare, here are a few of my favorite, and hopefully not too “iPhone-biased,” quotes about the latest Android-powered device:

“Does not support multi-touch functionality (pinching) or the handy swiping motion iPhone users love.” – Advertising Age

“What it made us realize, however, is that an Android phone is really better off with a keyboard, and we were longing to get back to the Droid a number of times while using this device.” – Engadget

“The Nexus One is an important milestone in the smartphone market. This is a software company, frustrated with making compromises with hardware manufacturers, that has taken the product bull by the horns.” – TechCrunch

Alright, enough quoting; I know why you’re here – infographics! The nice people of BillShrink.com put this helpful comparison together (click image to enlarge).

Well, that’s all for tonight – got to pack and get out of Seattle for CES / Las Vegas!

Happy Nexus One Day!

– RP