A retarded sales strategy has nothing to do with innovation that people aren't prepared for.
No one's interested in Google's rebadged HTC anyway, so they might as well just can it.
Right. It doesn't have an Apple logo on it, so of course it automatically sucks.
Anyway, there were a few problems here. I think part of it is that most people in the U.S. simply aren't ready to shell out all the money up front for a phone. They have been brainwashed into thinking that the low price upfront with a 2 year lock into a contract is the only way to do things. And it's not just phones. too many people in this country are only concerned with "how much per month" instead of "how much".
Also, they released it on the smallest of the major carriers at first. T-Mobile may be great, but it is still small. Google also did no mainstream advertising for the phone. Google's lack of customer service probably played a part. One of the advantages of buying from a carrier store or somewhere like Best Buy is that when you have a problem with a device, you can take it back to them. Try that with Google. Finally, when buying something like a phone, many people like to get their hands on it to see it in action, see how it feels, etc.
