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Google’s Q1 2015 numbers are in, and as usual the company raked in a lot of dough. They were able to amass $17.3 billion in revenue — which is a 12% increase year-on-year — and $3.85 billion of that was marked as profit.
Advertising was a big part of that, as usual, with that sector of Google’s business responsible for more than $15 billion of revenue on its own. Google did mark a 23% increase of $1.8 billion in revenue for their “other” businesses (such as the money they get from Google Play digital and physical sales), though performance 2% dropped quarter-over-quarter.
Google attributed the slight dip to a decline in sales of Nexus devices. While they didn’t get specific, they are likely referring to the fact that the Nexus 6 was available at a high-end price point of $650 which could have deterred more sales than yesteryear’s $350 Nexus 5. It’s still odd considering the Nexus 6 was widely available on major American carriers for financed smartphone payment plans or subsidized contracts.
But the beat goes on as it always has for Google. They’re really not interested in selling more hardware than the next guy. They’re interested in creating great platforms and services that everyone will use so that their major money maker — search and advertising — finds its way into more and more hands. You can check out the full numbers at the jump.
[via Google]
It was the size, not the cost
Primarily due to the size, yes, but cost was certainly a significant factor as well.
I can’t understand all this b1tching about the Nexus 6. It’s a phone which competes with the best. End of. You want the best, you pay for it. And you get used to the size. It’s certainly no bigger than the fanboy fave, the 6plus.
U look silly as fuxk holding that thing
Hmm… Saying that phablets are ridiculously large. Sounds… familiar…
Is the size really an issue?
The size is not an issue at all.
Very true. Apparently woman usually say bigger is better anyway
To me, it is. I have tried it but couldn’t stand its size!
Was it the price tag? Or the submission to Verizon? Nah… I kid!
well, they might have had more success if they had expandable memory. Verizon only had the 32GB which is definitely not enough.
A 6″, $700 phone that has nothing going for it other than “this is a Google phone.”
It was an answer to a question that relatively few people were asking, especially at that size and that price.
You’ve obviously never bought a phone outright. They are all $600-900 outright. The N6 is no different. And yes, it doesn’t have a skinned interface but last I looked it had 5.1 and soon 5.1.1 available for it .. those Samsung and HTC beasties that have so much going for them at the same price point .. or more with the S6 … seem to be a bit behind. *shrug*
I bought my first smartphone (HTC Touch Pro) outright. I bought my One (M7) outright. My unlocked S6 is in the mail… purchased outright.
The Nexus line was basically formed on being a Google reference device. It didn’t have top of the line specs, but it ran smoothly and also got the latest updates. Starting with the Galaxy Nexus (my opinion, could be wrong), they started trying to make it a more consumer-friendly phone. The specs were reasonable, and so was the price. They seem to have hit on a great formula with the N5.
Then, out of nowhere, this gigantic phone. Then, out of nowhere, this spec monster. Then, out of nowhere, this phone that brings nothing to the table except fastest updates.
Now, I’m not one to belittle that. It definitely gets the updates first. We’ve seen the posts on Reddit about how that’s been working out. I’m just saying that the other devices bring something that matter to what we’ll have to call the average consumer. Getting the latest version of Android just isn’t that big of a deal, especially when you’re talking about devices that are so heavily skinned.
And as far as the difference between 5.0.2 and 5.1.1… are there any features in there? Or is it all bug fixes? That’s not snark, by the way. I’m genuinely curious. It’s always great to get bug fixes as quickly as possible.
So you can tell me that all the skinned devices are several versions behind the N6, but it’s not going to change the fact that Nexus went from “affordable, reasonably-sized Google reference device” to “gigantic spec monster.”
Complains that the Nexus 6 is a monster and $700.00 buys the S6 “outright”. I had a nexus 5 and bought the Nexus 6 outright. No complaints here. The S6 didn’t even interested me. Its all about what a consumer wants. I’m fine with the Nexus 6. I can root it without sacrificing any features and the wallet feature works! That’s good enough for me!
My complaint is the size. I don’t have a problem with the price. You put feature specs in your phone, you charge feature prices.
But if you don’t think increasing a full inch in size and doubling the price between generations might give people pause, I don’t know what to say.
History repeats itself, just in a different fashion. Trust me when I say the size is not an issue at all. (My goodness, that just sounded so… eh… never mind.)
Don’t get what I mean about that statement? Here, let’s go back in time.
HTC HD2.
At the time, that phone was considered large. It was ridiculous to have a phone that large. Nobody wanted that. Why would they? It was way too large of a phone. The same thing people are saying about phablets, they were saying about the HTC HD2. Now guess what? People are saying 4-4.5 inches is the perfect size. They talked about Apple for staying with a 3.5 screen.
I’ve gotten progressively larger screens with each phone purchase. I’ve gotten to the point where I wanted the HTC One Max. ._.
It used to just be something that I didn’t like. But I think it’s actually becoming an issue now because we’re approaching a point where phones are becoming at least slightly unwieldy with two hands. They’re not necessarily fitting easily in to your pockets. Even though we always talked about how “huge” phones were getting beforehand, this has never been an issue.
I dunno. I liked everything the phone was doing and I was fully prepared to purchase it until I saw the size. I’m not saying a phone has to be able to fit in a coin pocket (I’m currently using the OnePlus One), but I’d like at least a marginal ability to use the thing with one hand. N6 feels like it’s beyond that threshold for me. 5.5″ is right around where I’d stop.
Cons for the HTC HD2 was that it may be too large for some users. They had to use two hands, pretty much everything you’re saying. They got used to it.
Then phablets are coming out. That was a major size change like before. When the Note first came out I thought that was the dumbest thing in the world. Then later on I thought it was pretty smart.
Before smartphones there was the PDA. Those things were large. I honestly feel that the size, while some may not like it, it’s not an issue at all or a huge deciding factor as to why sales are low.
I feel like people go out and they’re like “Oh this is too large for me” while others are “Oh!! This is large!! I like it”.
There was no other way I could word that without sounding… eh… so I decided to have a little fun.
Ha! TMY effing K.
That’s genuinely fascinating stuff. I hadn’t noticed it.
Nexus suffered a decline? Gee you think Google? You FINALLY released a device on all carriers (nearly simultaneously) that runs stock Android but it’s an absurd 6″ and costs $700. I don’t want a tablet, I want a phone.
Refresh the Nexus 5 on all carriers, it was perfectly sized and priced.
For real! I bought a 2nd gen Moto X after they released the Nexus 6. It’s mostly the same phone but It fits in my pocket and the Moto Stuff software is actually beneficial.
The writing is on the wall: Google is in serious trouble. Android adoption rates in the U.S. are at 35%. Apple is sitting at 62% and climbing (per latest com reports at BGR).
Android Wear is floundering, Google Wallet hasn’t taken off like expected, and Android itself is suffering declines with more going to Apple.
But hey, we get Project Fi…
I have a hard time trusting anything BGR says, they seem like an apple fan boy site disguised as a news site.
I do believe the Apple adoption rate has gone up larger due to the 6/6+ screen sizes, and you tend to see this every time Apple drops something new.
It’s not surprising that people aren’t buy Android Wear. I’m sure we’ll see it with the Apple Watch. People are yet to know why they should get these devices.
And Google Wallet has been a mess since the beginning, largely in part to the carriers.
All that side, the idea that “the writing is on the wall” is a bit like saying the end it nigh. I don’t believe anyone thinks Google is in trouble here.
BGR is the most ridiculous excuse for a mobile tech news site I’ve ever seen. They’re basically the TMZ/Fox of the mobile tech news world.
I’ve noticed the same, BRG is very biased towards Apple. And Android Wear is doing just fine. Why else would so many manufactures be jumping on board? When Apple watch takes off, that will in turn produce more smartwatch awareness which means more Android Wear sales. Google and Android are just fine. That dude is just trolling hard.
Not trolling at all. Read some investment articles. Most are holding off on buying Google and are predicting rough water ahead.
And how is Android Wear doing fine? 750,000 wearables shipped is fine? The iWatch sold 2.3 million in pre orders alone, with 1 million estimated sold in stores already today. On hands reviews by BGR, Forbes, Engadget, Verge, CNET, Yahoo, CNN, etc. proclaim the Apple watch “destroys the competition”. It has real apps for it and works. Android Wear? Not so much.
Sorry, I like Google, but Apple is cleaning house as of late in market share, profit, and innovation. People are buying. I’m one.
“750,000 wearables shipped is fine?”
50 wearables shipped is fine if you make a profit at that quantity. The fact that several manufacturers are making Wear products, with new models being announced all the time indicates things are just fine for Wear.
Of course the iWatch got tons of preorders, new Apple products don’t have to be any good to sell. If Apple employees put their sh*t in white boxes, the legions of Apple fanboys would pay $300 a pop for their iTurds and call it innovative. The real test for iWatch will be if the hordes who preordered them actually like and use them, and more importantly, will they buy iWatch version 2.
ROFLMAO!!! @ iTurd.
Statistics is deceptive. It deceives people. You have been deceived, my friend.
Unfortunately you are right. Hopefully the S6 does well and gets Android back to where it was a few years ago. I think what’s hurting Android the most is the lack of new features available in the last few OS releases. Apple, on the other hand, has started implementing some of Android’s features which has helped them immensely.
3 things are killing Android: lack of new innovative features, fragmentation, and lack of security. Just today, Symantec published that 1 in 5 Android apps have some sort of malware. In Apple? They found 3 apps total. Google Symantec malware Android and look for an article published today.
Google has it’s work cut out for it to regain market share and its reputation back.
Lack of new innovative features? Well every time an OEM comes out with a new feature it gets called some gimmick and tossed aside.
Samsung has been adding these “gimmicks” all the time. The S6 Edge goes against the very thing you stated. The M8 and the duo camera? Excellent idea!! They have the ideas. It may be the execution of them. What has Apple brought to the table? NFC payments? Bringing out another application to make payments via your mobile device isn’t innovation.
Lack of security is a flawed argument. While Symantec did say that, they also went to add that they included every source of download. Apple is limited to just the Apple Appstore. On Android you can get apps from anywhere. This increases your chance of getting a virus. Limit to just the Playstore and then come back and tell me the numbers.
Fragmentation exists in the iPhone as well. Just because you get an update, doesn’t mean you get everything the update had to offer for newer devices. Fragmentation can happen on the software level as well. With Android fragmentation seems to happen on the hardware level.
My point? Both OS’s (Because there’s only Android and iOS. The others are non-existent. LoL!!) are going through there own versions of what you’re saying. I don’t think those are killing Android at all.
LOL! There have numerous reports and studies showing less then 0.5% of apps (that are sideloaded) have malware and even less overall.. Less then 0.1% if from Play Store… 1 in 5!? Hahahah
The security part is so cliché.. Stop it..as long as you download from playstore… Your as safe as Apple…the only one who could talk about security.. Is BlackBerry because although they suck in sales..they dominate in mobile security..
comScore has Android at 53.2% in the US versus Apple’s 41.3%. And the worldwide numbers are far more favorable for Android: 81.5%.
I wouldn’t say Google or Android is trouble at all. Android is dominating the world, and even if you take BGR’s biased US numbers, they’re US market share is unthreatened since Apple limits themselves (1 or 2 models a year versus Android phones in all shapes and sizes), Blackberry is dead, and WP is hanging on by a thread. As for Google as a whole, it’s a lot more than just Android.
Why do Apple users feel the need to harass the majority that own Android? (This board is call Ph-android) I do not go to Apple boards and ask people how they like iTunes. Android is in serious trouble when more people own Android than Apple. You know why Google Wallet did not take off ? Only an idiot would think it is faster to get you phone out than just tap with your banking card.
Android resumes US market share gains according to…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-r-levin/android-resumes-market-sh_b_7118268.html
Global as well…
http://www.streetinsider.com/Insiders+Blog/Android+(GOOG)+Adds+to+Mobile+Market+Share+in+March+as+iOS+(AAPL)+Recedes/10422958.html
“Nexus sales suffered a ” ‘decline’ ”
Thanks Obama. I mean….Nexus 6.
The Nexus 9 and the Nexus Player weren’t that much more attractive than the 6.
If anything I’d rather own the 6 than the player or the 9.
Still I don;t any of those and I’ll wait and see what this year’s nexus phone brings to the table. Happy with my Nex5 for now
I think we’re all still waiting for our Nexus 5 (2). Hope it happens now that they pulled their head out of their butt. Maybe give me a removable battery if that isn’t too much to ask for…
I’m just waiting for next year to see what they’re going to name the next Nexus phone.
Should have never made the Nexus 6 so damn big! Would have been got one if it wasn’t the size of a tablet.
Me too. I was so disappointed that Google released big phone like that. Not all of us love phablet! Also, the price is too much compared to their last Nexus.
While the Nexus 6 is great for what it is, it didn’t follow one of the most important aspects of the the Nexus phone line: Price. Historically, google offered a great phone for half the cost of its competitors which also helped developers get cheap hardware. The Nexus 6 tried too hard to go premium (as explained by it’s price) when thats not really it’s purpose.
I agree with this.
I paid over $500 for the Nexus One, and I paid the same price again for the Galaxy Nexus… so the Nexus 6 seems to just revert back to the high prices the Nexus Phones used to have.
Nexus sale only went up from Nexus 4 to 5 because of lower prices than other flagship phones with same specs. So, by reverting back to high price on Nexus 6, of course, it’s going to hurt its sale.
I would have bought the nexus 6 had it not been so big. It was just too big a phone for me. I went with the 2014 moto x instead.
If T-Mobile offered the Moto X 2014.. I would of went with that instead of Xperia Z3..I just love stock Android..
Yeah, I’m not buying another Nexus till the Nexus 5 v2. The Nexus 6 is not an adequate replacement, nor a good reason to trade ‘up’. Making the Nexus 5 v1 unavailable for most of the year (sporadic, now gone for good) was guaranteed to hurt sales.
Thanks Obama for poor nexus sale
The high price of Nexus 6 is not the only reason
The high price of Nexus 6 is not the only reason for it’s lower sales. It’s the blody size of the thing. How hard is it to understand that it is just simply too big for a lot of people? Size matters….
Yep, I wouldn’t buy a 6 inch phone at any price, but I am about to shell out $650 for an M9.
even with its size, its still remarkable that its smaller than the iPhone 6 plus. yet with a larger screen than the iPhone 6+.
But i6+ sells because it has an official Apple logo on it
Not because of the screen size, the actual size or any other feature
But 9 of the 10 6 models I see are the small ones. Offer both sizes is a good idea, only offering the massive one was dumb.
Fanboy pandering.
The 6+ is very well built. Android OEMs have gone insane with the current spec rate. They aren’t going higher than 1080p for any percievable benefit to the consumer. They are going higher than 1080p to show off, say me too, and to the detriment to the the consumers battery. The Nexus 6 battery life was abysmal for such a hunk of a phone. Samsung has WORSE battery life this year over their last year flagships and way behind the iPhone.
I want android to succeed and be the best it can be but be honest the truth is if the iPhone 6 plus DIDNT have an apple logo on it and ran stock lollipop you would be drooling all over it. It doesn’t FEEL like a phablet because of the thinness and my point of reference was the Nexus 6.
Drooling over the iPhone 6plus? No thank you, besides being too big (even the NExus 6 with bigger screen but smaller formfactor is too big already) the thing is ugly as well.
I still think the iPhone 4 had the best design of all iPhones.
But I will hand you that I envy the batterylife of iDevices usually. But batterylife is not nearly enough to compel me to buy an iPhone.
Taping on my 6 plus produces a hollow sound. Taping on my note 4 produces no sound. Note 4 and the m8 I have are well built devices.
iOS has a good balance of software and hardware. Android has the commodity hardware philosophy (good software advanced by better and better hardware, I.e. everything is a nail, hardware is the hammer) The only android OEM that tried that was Motorola, and it wasnt as successful as expected. Great device. Not enough hammer..
No way. The nexus 6 has that awkward curve behind the back which OEMS have been doing now a lot now and it feels like a cheap way to hide the chubbiness of their phone.
The iPhone 6 plus feels amazing in hand and in pocket because apple made that thing so amazingly thin! I wish that exact same dimensions and display and battery life would run a lollipop android phone. Samsung has the closest thing going with their flat back phones.
HTC is also bad with their rear curved phones. You too LG.
the curved back of the Nexus 6 is actually one of the advantages of owning a Nexus6. It benefits the user who holds one because its easier to hold than a flat phone. When you hold a phone, your hand naturally has a curve, so it’s a better fit than a flat phone.
I would have paid top-dollar for a normal sized Nexus that had a premium feel.
For all those talking about the size, I’ll just leave this here.
History repeats itself, just in a different fashion.
Enjoy the nostalgia.
Not really – there is an upper limit on what you can hold and what you can fit into a coat pocket. By all means offer large devices (like Galaxy Note / iPhone 6 Plus) but if you are ONLY offering a jumbo phone, don’t be surprised if people take their cash elsewhere…
I kinda agree..if Google released a 2014 Nexus 5 along with a Nexus 6…then I highly doubt that Nexus sales would decline. In fact let’s not forget.. Google ceased sales of the Nexus 5..then a few weeks later brought the 32GB back…then a few weeks later…Done. Yeah it was lack of choice that sunk sales…not the nexus 6 itself…
Edit: and I also believe the Nexus Player flopped (they forgot HDMI Pass through!!!!!) And I have yet to see someone with a Nexus 9…
Still have my HD2…Flashed Gingerbread on it once T-Mobile would not accept my return (WinMo was hideous).. And yes coming from a Blackberry Pearl…*it was too big*…lol..but the thinness and metal finish was awesome.. I eventually got used to it…
Looking back at the hd2, its ridiculous how much of the m7, m8, and m9’s design can language can be found in this relic. Same curve on the back, same ugly chin that ruins the potential symmetry, same edges that slant towards the screen. I used to love HTC, but they are too affraid to do something they haven’t already done in respects to their flagships. I have always felt they could build amazing phones, but their design just always misses the mark for me.
A LOT of complainers on here about size. The first smartphone to fit a big screen in a small package and all we get is bitching and complaining.
The N6 has lower sales due to price. You’re going to have more volume in sales by selling a good cheaper product, common sense.
Top end specs? Google is damned if they do and damned if they don’t apparently.
People are still waiting for that fairy tale refreshed N5? Get over yourselves. I don’t foresee two Nexus phones, Google can hardly manage one phone.
People are talking PRICE and SIZE, and those are both worth talking about…
…but I think the real issue is that none of the 2015 flagships have a KILLER APP or SPEC BUMP.
My N5 runs just as great as the day I got it, so this is the first year in memory that there’s no huge feature the new batch of phones have that I’m salivating over.
You sir are correct. My Nexus 5 is still as smooth as Chris. Just with a shattered glass.
Honestly, even my N4. The battery doesnt hold as much of a charge anymore but otherwise it runs just fine.
Yes!. I’ve heard the N4 with L is great. Shame the batteries on the recent Nexuses are a pain to swap. :/
Oh its excellent. And the PROCESS for swapping the battery on the N4 isnt a big chore, the issue is getting a genuine, new battery.
I love my Nexus 6, moving up from a Nexus 4, I thought it would be to big, but now it is prefect fit for me
Phablets are for phools.
Or maybe tiny phones are for people with tiny brains.
Its not the price, its too big! If they made a smaller one I’d have it.
It’s both of them. The Nexus 5 was terific. It wasn’t perfect, but for the price it was unbeatable. I hope for a Nexus 5 2015
I’m thinking nexus 9 was a big part too
Maybe leaving out 2 features that are very important to a lot of android users was a factor in the decline. (micro SD expansion, user replaceable batt.)