Google Nexus One outstrips Apple and Motorola

According to the report from an analytics company Flurry, Google’s sales of its Nexus One smartphone have significantly straggled the pace of Apple’s iPhone and Motorola’s Droid sales.

Google launched the Nexus One phone, which it developed with handset manufacturer HTC Corp of Taiwan, in January, marking the first time the search engineer had sold a hardware device directly to consumers.

Flurry’s sales estimation is based on software applications featuring its analytics technology that have been downloaded to most of the phones, suggests a less than stellar start to Google's plan to play a larger role in the mobile phone business.

As Flurry found, Google sold roughly 135,000 of its new Nexus One phones in the first 74 days on the market. It may be compared to Apple’s 1 million original iPhones sold in the first 74 days. During the same time, Motorola sold 1.05 million Droid phones.

However, unlike the iPhone or the Droid, the Nexus One can only be bought via the Web and is not available at retail stores. Google has also been advertising the phone exclusively online, foregoing the high-profile television ad campaigns of the iPhone and the Droid.

The Nexus One is currently available for $179 with a two-year contract from Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA, or $529 without a service plan.

Besides, the search giant unveiled Tuesday that a new version of the Nexus One is now available that works on AT&T Inc's 3G wireless network. Previously, the Nexus One was only compatible with AT&T's lower speed 2G or EDGE network. Google also said that the phone will be available with Verizon Wireless sometime in the spring.