Sony Ericsson CEO: Google asked us to build the Nexus One, we refused
By Vlad Savov 
posted February 18th 2010 8:36AM
posted February 18th 2010 8:36AM
[Thanks, Michael N]
posted February 18th 2010 8:36AM
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Stupid decision?
@XChrisX I wonder if he's kicking himself for saying that?
@XChrisX
I still think it's kinda sensible. would say Apple ever build the Nexus One even if they were offered billions to do it? SE has been making decent handsets in their own right anyway, their biggest disadvantage though is the lack of a proprietary smartphone OS.
@abrli Apple doesn't build anything. Foxconn or whoever builds the iPhone for Apple. SE, presumably, has its own factories.
@XChrisX With just 80.000 devices sold?!
Oh boy, I think even SE can sell more than this. :P
@XChrisX
Maybe not. AFAIK Nexus One isn't selling that well.
@XChrisX
No it's not a bad decision. Why make a phone for Google, when years of work establishing for their brand a high amount of recognition for poor quality and delayed products?
@XChrisX It's like Palm choosing to sell the Palm Pre on Sprint first. Great handset on a sluggish network. Once they get this handset on other carriers I'm sure the sales will increase.
@Mr w00t You have to ship a phone before you can sell it. Maybe that's what kept them from accepting the gig?
@Suomaa
It's the network that's responsible for the poor sales. T-mobile sucks where I live.
I'm on AT&T and I'm pining for this phone. And I know a lot of VZW and Sprint users who want an N1 as well.
@XChrisX
If you OEM a phone for someone else then you don't make anywhere near as much profit as from selling one yourself so not really a bad decision at all.
HTC started out OEM so have no problems with it, when you have a brand as big as Sony's why would you build stuff for others ?
@XChrisX
Look at it this way. HTC got to spend Google's coin on RD to develop the Nexus 1...then take what they learned and put it into the desire with tweaks and improvements (obviously they also removed a couple of features like the noise cancelling, but I've never had that so I wouldn't miss it) then sell it for themselves. They get paid twice, don't waste time or money developing an OS because Google already did it. We all start to respect the brand more.
Win win for HTC all-round.
@Suomaa "Nexus One isn't selling that well."
i wonder why... they are trying to sell it here in Latvia for 1200usd... :(
@NIMBUS
Who is "they"? Certainly not Google.
@XChrisX
SPOT ON! Bad Business Decision. Especially in their position!
@Mr w00t
80k on tmobile, once it starts spreading to mainstream carriers (read: at&t and verizon) i expect it will surge up fast.
@Suomaa
That's true, but I wonder how much of those poor sales are due to 1) no product in stores for people to handle. That's an untested market in the States. And 2) launching on the 4th (and last) place carrier in the U.S.
Just sayin', hope Google got their strategy advice from a tweener nephew like it appears, and didn't overpay some marketing group.
@XChrisX - One of many.
Wait, SE still makes phones? Oh...
@Flasher T
Apple builds their phones so does Sony and HTC. They just use Foxconn and companies like that to mass manufacture the hardware.
@Frankenstein Black
I know right? When was the last time you saw someone with a Sony Ericsson handset? I'm poppin brain cells trying to remember a recent sighting!
@abrli Problem is that while SE builds decent handsets, it takes too long to do it. How long have we been hearing about the X10? When is it being released? That much time between hearing and seeing, plus the fact that other comparable phones will have been out for months already, make Sony's business decision a horrible one. The fact is that they're too slow to do it alone.. they should have taken Google's offer and worked together to come to market with a great product faster! X10? With it's proprietary software, it won't hold a candle to the N1. It'll be running God-knows-what OS version when its released, and like Sense phones will be upgraded months after a new version comes out.
@XChrisX Not for Google; they'd still be waiting for the handset 6 months from now.
@abrli Yeah they have but they continue to lag behind and seem to always miss the boat on what is next up. I am no fan of Apple but they put out good products and have a loyal following so they can do that. Other then my PS3 I can care less about Sony overpriced products. They are the last thing you think about when you think about phones. I think it was a dumb decision.
@XChrisX I'd call it an irresponsible decision, from a company that is already floundering. I don't think 'stupid' is the appropriate word.
@corneliusm
Exactly!!! Carrier locked handsets and carrier exclusivity HURTS sales. When are OEM's going to realize that? Or do they just get so much of a premium from the carrier that it offsets the lost sales? That must be it. T-Mobile SUCKS in the USA; they are even worse than AT&T. I don't care if they had a 2ghz OMAP5 (doesn't exist) based android phone with video calling...I still would not switch. Imagine if Verizon carried the nexus one....sales would be WAY higher. VZW is all around win these days.
am i surprised why SE is doing well in the phone market, no!
its like they dont build good phones for others coz they cant do it for themselves, have they? struggling hard to recollect a successful SE phone in recent times...
@XChrisX Not really. They get much more money from building devices for themselves and selling those with 500% margins.
On the other hand, they can only build a very small number of devices themselves, so they simply couldn't afford making phones for anyone else.
So SE is basically bragging they turned down Google and they still can't get the Xperia 10 to market lol? If SE had built the phone we still wouldn't have a N1, just pictures and no ETA.
HTC was the right company, Google just should have included UMTS bands 2 and 5 as well considering the damn chip in it supports it.
@XChrisX
But dont they have the right to refuse? Its true they're in business to turn a profit but isn't this the sort of decision that management is tasked w/ making? This is done on a daily basis, usually after careful cost/benefit analysis, among other things.
Maybe they just didnt want to be Google's bitch; and who can blame them?
@XChrisX
Sounds like he made the wrong call.
@XChrisX
@etrnldrk - At what point to we get to hammer on Google then? Apple sold 100k in the first week and somehow that is meet with conditions and disclaimers. No mention of the price as all of those phones were sold at $600. 80k is lame and we all know it. T-mobile has nothing to do with it. It's not like they are getting money from selling the OS to other companies. This is the only phone they have sold and it isn't selling well. Hell, Apple sold almost 9 million phones in the 1st quarter of this year. Maybe if the Nexus was bundled with unicorn tears it might sell better.
@chaos lol, true. Imagine the Nexus Two being launched before the Nexus One.
I wonder why Google would even ask SE... they'd be one of the last companies I'd ask to work on a modern smartphone.
@Eal You mean just Verizon.
We all remember what happens when a popular smartphone hits AT&T...
@XChrisX Off topic but on Sprint Palm PRE had more visibility since Sprint did not have any good smartphones at that point.
AT&T has Iphone, Verizon was looking into Android and tmo already had android. I think partnering with Sprint was a good idea. Also, Sprint is actually pretty fast it is the 3rd largest nationwide carrier and it ROAMS on verizon so you have coverage everywhere. Price and featurewise no one can beat Sprint.
It's good business to turn down business when you can spin the PR into laying off people to boost your eventual stock price at their expense (as you presumably recover and see growth again).
Or it could be that they didn't think they could do a very good job on something given so much press and said 'no' out of simple fear.
@LargeFormat Wrong and wrong. Only reason I own an iPhone is because I'm on AT&T. If it were on T-Mobile I wouldn't have even considered going because in Atlanta T-Mobile is awful.
Apple sold iPhones because Apple is the king of hype. For heaven's sake they sold a phone that couldn't MMS, didn't have access (and still doesn't) to the full internet, couldn't copy/paste and couldn't multi-task. If ANYONE else had tried to sell that product it would have flopped. They didn't even have an App store the first year it was out. People bought purely for the "coolness" factor, not because it was a great phone.
@XChrisX This is a pretty strange thing to proclaim seeing as how HTC was also the company who actually built SE's own Xperia X1.
@Flasher T They build their products they subcontract the parts like any other company in the world. Do you think Ford makes the tires, windshield etc etc? You need to get your facts right before you comment something that makes you look ignorant. Just some advice
@Tes That's a great point never thought of that
@LargeFormat
You're not taking into account that the iPhone was hyped and promoted to death WAY before it was even CLOSE to being released. The Nexus One has had little to no promotion or even commercials at all. The only people who really knew about the N1 were tech geeks like us and random people who might stumble upon one of the few Nexus One ads around the web.
Someone said it before but if Google really wanted the Nexus One to be a smash hit like the Droid, they'd have no problem doing it. They have nearly unlimited resources in that area. At this point, it's obvious that they just wanted to iron out the kinks, test the waters and see how things go first, which is never a bad idea. It also isn't wise to screw their 3rd party developers over either.
@XChrisX
:| How many highest ranks is it possible to have in the one thread!
13 Apparently.....
@XChrisX Sprint has the fastest 3g speeds nationwide on avg... WTH are you talking about...
@LargeFormat
Yeah dude.
Selling 80k phones on a last place network with little big marketing, little fanfare, and running a platform that myriad other devices do nearly identically.
While Apple has uniqueness, huge marketing campaigns and enormous fanfare.
That makes the N1 like
totally lame
man.
@Flasher T
Didn't HTC build the original SE xperia?
@bsodmike Man. I wonder if they'll fire this guy before he finishes destroying the company, or after?
@XChrisX Seriously what with him.
@NIMBUS
wow, I'm surprised analysts haven't quoted stats from Latvia before...that's fascinating..
Congratulations on getting internet access btw..
@sapient2k7 If you can get on either's network and before Sprint pulls you for calling CS too many times for their shitty service.
Considering the pretty lackluster sales of the Nexus One, not really a dumb decision. It's not like they gaines any mindshare for their own company by building a Google branded device, and I doubt that Google would completely sponsor the needed R&D...