Google's Nexus One no iPhone in the sales department, either

Google Inc.'s Nexus One phone is selling at a slower pace than the first iPhone, reaching about 135,000 units in the time it took Apple Inc. to sell 1 million, according to Flurry Inc.

The original iPhone hit the 1 million mark after 74 days on sale in 2007. The Nexus One will have sold about one-eighth as many units on its 74th day on March 19, estimates Flurry, a company that tracks smartphone use.

Google, owner of the most popular search engine, introduced the Nexus One in January, selling it through its Web site. U.S. consumers aren't accustomed to buying phones that way, which may have hurt sales of the Nexus One, said Peter Farago, vice president of marketing at San Francisco-based Flurry.

"As successful and talented as Google is online with paid search and other kinds of related businesses, the hardware business is very different," he said.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, said it was pleased with orders.

"They demonstrate the success of the product and distribution model," the company said in an e-mailed statement.

The phone, which uses Google's Android operating system, also trailed sales of another Android-based device -- Motorola Inc.'s Droid. Like the first iPhone, that phone had sales of about 1 million in its first 74 days, Flurry said.

Android was first offered on phones in 2008. The Nexus One is Google's attempt to show what other handset makers should strive for when they use the Android software, said Carl Howe, an analyst with the Yankee Group in Boston.

"In many ways, their job is not necessarily to sell 10 million of them," he said. "Their job is basically to signal to the market where they want their platform to go."

The phone is manufactured for Google by Taiwan's HTC Corp. It's $179 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile USA Inc., the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. Without the contract, the Nexus One costs $529.

Google's reliance on T-Mobile narrows the available market for new customers, said Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"It takes a lot to get a consumer to switch wireless carriers, especially if they're in the middle of their contract," Golvin said.

Google also had trouble early on with customer service, Golvin said. In Nexus One's first week, the company received more than 100 complaints about the phone on its Web site. Google said at the time it was investigating the issues and providing support to customers.

Google rose $2.55 to $565.73 at 9:45 a.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares had dropped 9.2 percent this year before today.