Nexus One smartphone first-week sales may not have been as strong as the Google had hoped for. Based on figures from the market research company Flurry, Google's Android-based smartphone may have sold only 20,000 units.

Sales figures for the Nexus One may have been hampered by reduced pre-launch marketing compared to other Android-based devices like the Droid smartphone. A lack of clear differentiating features, or what Flurry called the "wow factor," may have been enough to lose the interest of some potential customers, too.

"For its release, Google executed an online 'soft launch' of the Nexus One, a very different go-to-market strategy compared to Verizon's launch of Droid, on which it spent a record-breaking US$100 million on marketing, including aggressive TV advertising spends," the Flurry report said. "Instead, Google chose to market and sell the device to consumers directly through its own Web site."

What many saw has a high price tag because an unlocked version of the Nexus One sells for $529. The subsidized version with a T-Mobile service contract, however, is priced at $179.

In comparison to other Android-based phones, Nexus One's first week sales seem fairly week. The myTouch launch week saw some 60,000 units sold, and the November 2009 Droid launch led to 250,000 first week sales. Apple's iPhone 3GS, however, out sold all three phones combined during its first week of availability with 1.6 million units.