Adelphos

Well what Nexus phone has been successful (from a market impact perspective)? As far as I can tell, the Droid Razr, Galaxy S II, etc outsell the Galaxy Nexus today, mainly due to the fact that carriers aren’t pushing the Galaxy Nexus.

My point is that Google has to go all in with this if it wants to be successful. I see Google’s own ads on TV for Chrome, Google Plus, etc. For this to work, Google needs to advertise the product, place the product at retail stores, provide customer service, etc. I don’t believe Google has ever shown the ability to do that

A few things…
1) Google needs to figure out how to sell subsidized Nexus phones with little carrier interference or manufacturer skins. This is basically what Apple does. Nexus phones are not going to do well selling at $500 while iPhone 5/6/whatever is selling at $300

2) It will be really interesting to see how Verizon responds… I’ve noticed that Verizon has pushed its Droid / Droid Maxx phones, not the Nexus… I think the latest Nexus may not have been as good of a launch as Google wanted, so they are changing course. Verizon likes to control its phones – don’t be surprised to see them pushing Windows phones this fall

3) Google needs to partner with Best Buy, Wal Mart, etc to really sell these things. Carriers won’t push them. I dont know if Google has the knowlege to really partner with retailers well

4) I wish them well as Nexus phones have been the only ones I would have considered buying since the rise of Android

Almost all of the most recent launches (Galaxy Nexus, iPhone 4S, this phone) have been kind of meh recently. Why? Because at the end of the day, these smartphones are all beginning to look and perform very much alike.

Why is the iPhone 3GS still a relevant phone several years later? Because it can do basically all of the functions of a modern smartphone still well. Improvements since then have been enhancement, not revolutionary. Already this year, I am noticing Android innovation plateau as well.

Fact of the matter is that there isn’t too much lef to do on the hardware side. All of the innovation will be on software (and maybe some industrial design changes). What these companies need to do is invent new ways for us to use our phones. If they don’t, smartphone growth is going to slow, rather quickly