Google sold approximately 80,000 of its Nexus One smartphones, according to analytical firm Flurry. If true, it would mean that the device is off to a slow start, despite the hype surrounding the leadup to the device, and the fanfare with which it was greeted after its release.
The Dow Jones wire service reported that Flurry based its estimations on mobile phone app usage as monitored by the company through participating app developers. The firm then extrapolated that usage into an overall estimate of the total number of Nexus Ones in use.
When it was first released, the original iPhone sold approximately 600,000 units in its first month of sales, and Apple announced the million unit mark 76 days after its release. At the time, those numbers were greeted by a mix of reactions between determining the device a success, deeming it a slow starter, with some pundits even calling it a failure.
If Flurry's numbers are right - and Google isn't commenting yet on sales numbers - the Nexus One sold approximately 13% of the number of units as the iPhone did in its debut month.
On the other hand, Dow Jones reporter Scott Morrison noted that Google has spent virtually nothing advertising the Nexus One, the same approach the company has successfully employed with virtually all of its products and services. Apple and AT&T, however, have put substantial resources into marketing the iPhone, with marketing being one of Apple's major strengths.
On the other, other hand, the Motorola Droid phone, the first very successful phone based on Google's Android operating system, sold 525,000 units in its first month of sales (according to Flurry), rivaling the original iPhone and also crushing the Nexus One.