Rarely does anyone talk about Google failing. The Mountain View, California company has been very careful to shield it’s less than successful ideas from the public, often hiding their software offerings under Beta tags, such as the widely anticipated and mostly ignored Google Wave product. By keeping them in Beta mode often for years, they can phase them out without admitting failure.
However, when it came to the cell phone business, Google thought it was on the right track by offering their new Nexus One cell phone direct to the consumer, rather than pushing them through selected wireless carriers as Apple has done with their Iphone. Well, the experiment is apparently over, and online sales are set to end soon as Google moves back to the more standard cell phone through wireless company model.
With the prices of unsubsidized handsets still being higher than what the public generally appears to want to pay, at least in the US, Google has little choice but to go down this route to keep their smart phone in the public eye and in their hands. Otherwise, they risk not only failing on a distribution model error, but also by not making a big enough impression in the marketplace at all.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Broadband Wireless Access
