Man Is The Media.
How Google Launched the Nexus One SuperPhone
January 6th, 2010 by Martin
I’ve been following the hype and launch of the much anticipated Nexus One phone, a.k.a “The Google Phone”. Here are a few pointers I took away from it all:
1. If you want the tech crowd to pay attention you need to come up with a cool and geeky-powerful name. Nexus One is probably as good as it gets, and also hints at the fact that there may be more Nexus phones coming. I was surprised to see this was actually the final name too. Often you only see the power names used as code names, but Google went all-in. I disagree with Guy Kawasaki on this point, although the name won’t work for a bigger market. Can you see your Mom say “Nexus One”? No, but you also can’t see her ever wanting a one anyway.
2. If you want tease the tech blogs you make sure plenty of leaks occur. They have to cover it, or someone else will, even though it’s only rumors and half-baked information. There’s been a bunch of first the traditional blurry photos, then blurry videos, and finally good-quality unofficial video too. How did they do it? Google circulated lots of phones before launch, both to high-profile technology personalities, such as Michael Arrington and Fred Wilson but also unknown people such as the guy behind one of the first blurry videos. What does it do? Creates anticipation, speculation, discussion. Miles and miles of column space and free PR.
3. Timing. I was watching the live press event on Ustream (courtesy of Scoble) and paying attention to www.google.com/phone. I’d picked the URL up from some of the leaked photos showing a label on the phone mentioning it. At the time of launch it was dead. A minute before they started talking about the store it was live. It still has a few bugs and in the Q & A session Google also mentioned “robustness” as the reason for why the US currently is the store’s only country, which further indicate the pressure the team must have been under.
4. Believe in your product and deliver. Working in software myself, I’m almost in awe of the execution of this launch. Google, also being mainly about software, managed to coordinate manufacturing with HTC, set up their first real store, upgraded Android to 2.1 – and had the launch date ready months before. The sheer amount of coordination efforts, bug fixing, last minute panic etc. must have been overwhelming. I wonder if anyone at the Android team actually celebrated Christmas… The success of this launch is as much about organization as it is innovation and development.
5. Keep a few goodies to yourself. As the presentation went on, I (and 6-7000 other people watching Scoble’s stream) started to think there wouldn’t be any surprises left, as most of the stuff had already been deliberately leaked. But the Android team still had a few great surprises, namely Google Earth, noise-cancellation, custom engraving and more.
6. Google introduced a new term, “Superphone”. It’s a clever move, saying they’ve upped the game and created a new league that makes smart phones archaic. It’s not just the first Nexus, it’s also the first superphone (a term no doubt adopted from the auto industry).
What could be better? I don’t think the launch could have been much more successful. Everyone who needed to know about Nexus One now does, and I’m sure the orders already have been pouring in overnight. But still I would have liked to see Google do live streaming in good quality (although that might have resulted in less coverage from all the live blogging?). And maybe a little more preparation on the side of the presenters. They weren’t bad at all, but they were miles away from both the iPhone launch and the Palm Pre launch. But I guess the Android team wanted to keep things more down to earth and hands on. Especially since more Android handsets will come-a-knockin constantly throughout 2010.
Probably the design and naming of the Nexus One is not perfect for the mainstream market. It’s very much similar to the G1. That’s why I’ll be anticipating a “Nexus Two” soon, although with a different name and a colorful or customizable design. Just like we saw when G2 and Hero followed G1. Google also promised that more handsets would make it to the store, but not just any handset.
It no longer says “With Google” on the phone. It says “Google”. I recommend you read more about Google’s new aggressive role in the handset market, best outlined by Tim O’Reilly here.
