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It’s tough to argue that the Nexus One isn’t a pretty sweet phone. Now whether you consider the Nexus One a SUCCESS? That’s a different story. A new distribution model unfamiliar to customers mixed with limited promotion constrained to internet ads/marketing have contributed to low total sales volume. But it appears that Google is finally prepared to take the Nexus One and future “Google Phones” to the next level.
On Google’s website, they’ve posted a job listing for the following position: Product Marketing Manager, Android and Nexus One – Mountain View. The job is clearly designed to DIRECTLY increase sales figures with a “comprehensive marketing strategy”. Here is the actual listing:
The Android space is a big opportunity for Google, and an area of strategic importance. As Product Marketing Manager for Android and Nexus One, you support the Direct-To-Consumer marketing plans and initiatives that will be rolled out in the coming months. You are focused on increasing the number of device sales and increasing awareness of the Nexus One brand.
Responsibilities:
- Be part of the team that drives and executes on a comprehensive marketing strategy for Direct-to-Consumer.
- Coordinate appropriately across product areas and teams, to ensure that campaigns reach our audience through all appropriate touch points.
- Work closely with global counterpoints in Android marketing to ensure global cohesion, communication, and scalability for local strategy, campaigns, and launches.
- Be a true product and industry expert for Android.
Requirements:
- Bachelors degree preferred or equivalent work experience.
- At least 7 years of work experience, with at least 3 years experience in mobile-related ventures. E-commerce and retail experience a plus.
- Demonstrated analytical success.
- Passion and prior work experience in mobile.
- Good understanding of Google’s strategic and competitive position in Android/Mobile.
- Strong organizational, leadership, and analytical skills as well as outstanding written and oral communication skills.
- Strong aptitude for determining the optimal way to position products in the market.
Check out the full listing at Google and if you apply and get the position… make sure you hit us up and keep us in the loop!
I don’t need to be a product manager to know that this thing mainly just needs to be priced cheaper. I would buy one if it were cheaper but for 500+ its really out of my logical price level.
The marketing solution for the Nexus One is simple. It needs to be in stores.
I agree with Techraan — it took me a very long time to buy one because I couldn’t touch it and see it in the store, and I felt lousy that customer support would be handled by email and not by some guy in a store where they can fix or replace the thing.
That said, for the past two weeks, I’ve noticed some very nice Nexus One ads placed at various mainstream websites….
However, I’ll be much more impressed with Google and this phone when Google does an OTA to a new kernel that allows me the full use of my 512Mb ram, not just 192Mb. There should be a nice class action lawsuit about that.
Google i do it for free, but just this time ok,,( LET THE T-MOBILE,VERIZON, SPRINT, AT&T, BEST BUY, AMAZON AND WHAT THE HECK EVEN EBAY SALE THE PHONE FOR YOU..)remember google this one was a free one…
All of the above are very valid reasons for low sales numbers, but the biggest reason they are failing is that there is zero customer service. Now I know there is a “telephone support” system now, but if you actually try it you’ll see that the answer to everything is to “factory re-set the phone and see if the problem goes away”. What GOOGLE needs to do is hire someone that didn’t go to college and get a degree and only knows what they read in the text books. They need someone with real-world experience that has the balls to tell Eric Schmidt and company that they need customer service, the defective phone they are selling needs to be fixed before they sell any more, the defective ones that they sold need to be recalled and replaced with ones that actually work, the forum questions need to be answered, there needs to be places where people can go and see and touch the phone, and they need to work on the price point. (If I missed anything please insert it here) This is not an April Fool’s joke, It’s reality 101. Maybe if GOOGLE got off their “We can do no wrong” horse they might be able to salvage this sinking ship called the SS Nexus One.
I appreciate the concept that a quality product (notwithstanding the defective units) should be able to stand on its own merit with or without relying on the amount of advertising that Motorola put out for the Droid, however . . .
Besides those of us who are here scanning Phandroid, SlashGear, BGR, etc, everyday and keeping ourselves up to date on the latest Android goodies, most regular consumers have very limited knowledge and appreciation of how awesome these new devices are.
Simply putting some demo models in stores so people could get a sense of what these phones can do would be extremely helpful, and even running a couple (God forbid) TV commercials to get the word out and pique peoples’ interest would be valuable. Android is at least comparable to iPhone, (and imo, superior in many ways), and the general public seems to think the only thing out company out there with anything innovative is Apple.
You’d think it might have been a wise idea to hire this position BEFORE the release of the N1 – or maybe . . . they are just hiring out the replacement for the original marketing manager who seriously dropped the ball!
shit, i thought april’s fool but this one is true. Way to go google and phandroid!. Maybe the N1 gets the respect it deserves, it really is the best phone right now. Then the crown is taken by the desire and in two months by the EVO.
It’s about time they (Google) do some more marketing.
Amen to everyone. I wont buy this phone until I can see it, hold it and I can upgrade my Family Plan with Tmobile.
I would have bought the n1 the first day it was out if I could have used my family plan upgrade, in fact I would have walked away with 2 of them. I can understand them wanting to try a new type of sales, but they should have eased into it by allowing us to choose between going through tmobile, in store same as it always has been or if you want it unlocked be able to get it through google. In fact if they really wanted to get creative they could have even sold it through google exclusively for the first 30-60 days and then released it in store. Oh, and nice comment moises.
My experience with support with the N1 has been great. I’m already used to buying things without touching them, so that wasn’t a factor. When I had an issue with the N1 hardware. I just had to call HTC. Without a contract, there is almost no reason to talk to Google directly, unless I guess you return it or something.
“Sorry, the Nexus One phone is not available in your country or region.” is what http://www.google.com/phone has been stating for months for most of the european countries.
It’d sell like hotcakes if they’d just make it available.
Good for Google.
I would like to see some ads :D
ads ads ads and a hands-on showroom that’s all u need almighty google simplusss pusssk
unlocked nexus one = $250
MILLIONS SOLD!!!!
IT’s that simple..
Google,
You said you were going to re invent the way phones were sold, but you haven’t. If you meant make it harder for average consumers to buy them, then YES you definitely have done that…
Unless you’re with tmobile that is…
Lower the unlocked price and you will sell these like hotcakes. It’s pretty obvious.
How about all you people saying some variant of “it’s so simple…blah blah blah” are a bunch of dumbshits and need to STFU. You don’t know what you’re talking about, and the Internet is better off without your witless opining.
AMEN to what elijahblake said!!! $250 UNLOCKED *world* phone – GSM & CDMA – with trackpad instead of trackball, and cheaper dock (that offers digital audio I/O instead of just RCA analog connections) and a car dock. Then Google would definitely change the game and clean the carriers’ clocks! Not to mention clean Apple’s clock!
Also, of course, set up Google mall stands (I say stands rather than stores because so far there’s only the one physical product they sell) where the product can be demonstrated. Offer coupons, special deals, etc. at the stands. Don’t require anyone to sign up with a contract but make it easy at those stands for customers to choose and sign up with any of the major carriers they want, month to month. Or just let them walk away with the unlocked phone and have them choose another carrier, like a smaller carrier (e.g., Cricket).
Google: you want the Nexus One to sell?! Stop dragging your feet and GET IN ON VERIZON AND SPRINT ALREADY!!! Make it happen. You are losing sales. Every week I have friends that are ready to upgrade and ask me which phone to get. I would tell them Nexus One but in many cases they don’t really want to go to AT&T or T-Mobile. They wind up going for the Droid or in some cases they give in to the temptation of the iPhone and deal with AT&T or others just get some other inferior smartphone.
Man oh man Ive been waiting for this phone to come to verizon for ages now. Its now April and verizon tells me for some reason its a delay on the phones release. Google is sooo damn slow if you ask me. Duh the phone would sell a lot more if they sold it in store with Tmobile verizon sprint and att so then everyone can play with it and buy it right then. If they would had done that I think this phone would had sold plenty. But I tell u this GOOGLE. People like me are really tired of waiting for this phone. I swear im just gonna wait for the desire if it comes out in the usa.. But for real I have been phone less for 3 months now waiting. I just want a phone that i can see myself still liking well into the 2 yr agreement so hopefully Verizon comes out wit the nexus but if tmobile comes out wit the Desire first ill be right in store to get that. Just waiting like ive been doin for months now…. kinda peed off
I really like the N1 and would go out and buy one right now if they have better monthly plans for it
The vast majority of phones are still sold in brick and mortar stores. If Google wants to sell more Nexus Ones they just need to get them in the shops and let people touch them.
what they need to do is do a damn commercial that alone would have sold an additional 300,000 i bet
If you can’t afford to buy one, get a better job and stop your whining! And obviously Google isn’t overly concerned with the sales numbers for the Nexus One or they would’ve used mainstream advertising and had them in the stores of it’s partners! I’m sure that at some time in the future they’ll do exactly that but for now it would appear that they’re happy with the results they’re getting. Case closed. End of story. Move along now….
Google Best Buy, or Wall Mart I would Have owned one!!!!
All they need are kiosks in malls and airports. some place that people can actually touch the thing. i have one and everywhere i go, someone asks me about it. they are flopping because they just need people to see/use it.
To Late for the NEXUS ONE it’s old hat should have been available sooner tough byte try again later
If buying unlocked phones is really the future then Google is just way too early out of the gate. In this economy at this time 500+ is just too much for most people (except CJ there) to put out at one time. One plan choice at TMobile is to confining and a lot of people would like the option of family plans. I believe the N1 could have blown the IPhone out of the water if they hadn’t chose to market this way. Remember IPhone started non subsidized and quickly changed. No wonder Google is looking for a Product Marketing Manager. In this moving market of smart phones Google missed the bus with this campaign. When the new android phones come out in the next few months people will be saying Whats a Nexus?
For all the whiners, stop complaining. Google, you keep your marketing strategy exactly the way it is. I like the exclusivity of the Nexus One.
To all you little kids asking for it to be $250, I would say get a real job but it’s obvious you don’t know the first thing about business. Giving these phones away for $250 unlocked and out of contract is idiotic. Just save up your lunch money and stop complaining.
Google needs to stick to software and advertising as the N1 experiment has only hurt the greater good of Android.
The average smartphone buyer can’t spell Linux and doesn’t understand the concepts of open platform, etc. All they want is a kickass experience.
When casual shoppers see negative news stories on poor N1 sales and frustrations over the app market’s limitations and then talk to users who are upset because promised OS upgrades haven’t rolled out, they don’t research WHY the N1 didn’t sell well or HOW the market is evolving or WHAT challenges are actually causing the upgrade delays; instead they run and buy a “safe” solution-Blackberry, iPhone or (gasp) Windows- regardless of how much better Android might be.
You only have to look at Palm’s rapid decline to “Sony Betamax” status to see what can happen when the media turns on your product. With the iPad stealing the Droid’s holiday buzz, now more than ever Google need another huge hit to further drive Android mindshare and recapture the buzz from Apple.
Unfortunately, even if you send the N1 to stores, it’s already a failure in the eyes of the tech media and there’s no getting bleeding edge geeks excited about it now that Sprint is waving around the buzz worthy EVO and the Samsung Galaxy and Sony X10 are about to ship. Let HTC quietly rebrand the N1 for traditional sales so it’s perceived as a different phone or just let it linger as is until better phones make it totally irrelevant then put a bullet in it’s head.
What Google really needs to be focusing on is ending OS fragmentation sooner rather than later, making the app market and app discover method a much better process and doing what ever it takes to get developers to create more “killer apps” that make the Android platform the envy of the tech world as well as the defacto solution of the IT business app crowd so Windows doesn’t have their “natural in” when they reenter the market in a few months.
@Sidcam. I got my N1 @ full price, don’t regret it. Got all my buddies with Android phones and iphones drooling over my N1 and wouldn’t call it a failure . I like the N1s exclusivity and the Evo is just another Android with Sence UI (sence has lost its charm) HDMI output? Just a gimmick but still a great phone overall but I do agree with Google doing something about the app market. Maybe do what Nokia does with the OVI store?
Hello? Why don’t people research before they post? There’s IS more than the 1 plan on T-Mobile. In fact I have a NO CONTRACT plan (Even More Plus) with UNLIMITED EVERYTHING (minutes, SMS/MMS texts, Android web, instant messaging, etc) for $80/month.
Actually if you do the math on this it will show that the $530 price tag, which allows you to take your unit to any 3G carrier thereby eliminating the need to purhase a new phone, or sign a contract, every 18-24 months means there isn’t a better deal out there.
As for the marketing question; all the Nexus needs is for the general public (and not just us geeks) know what this thing can do; its supremacy over the iphone & the ability to take it to almost any carrier, and they’d take a fine share of the mobile marketplace.
well … I CANT buy it, even if I wanted to … and I WANT … bud google dont care …. on google.com/page instead of buy button is just a big GRAY COLORED SORRY, NOT AVAILABLE in your country … THATS PROBLEM.
Another reason is … HTC Desire is 20 percent cheaper here (Europe, Prague) and buch better available than nexus … i Would prefer nexus with google support of course, but as you can see, its not easy at all.
OK so beyound the reasons stated for this phone not selling-is T-MOBILE. T-MOBILE and its spotty 3g just aint ganna cut it-once it hits Verion and such it will do much better-market wise and all
Google makes all its money from online ads so it probably doesn’t realize that if you want to sell a product, you need TV ads and show it off in person in a store.
Brick and Mortar selling options would be ideal, even a kiosk as someone stated earlier. Forcing us to change our plans to upgrade to an N1 is silly… and that plan option is a POS plan.
I was so excited when N1 announced but not being able to see one in the flesh prevents me from buying one. TMO has insurance options you can opt for that aren’t available with the N1… Google wants to bypass the carriers but their sales models today are better than what Google can offer. Sell it unlocked on the website and let Tmo, Verizon, At&T, Sprint etc sell it through their channels.