It’s been more than three months since the launch of one of the most anticipated smart phones for this year, the Google Nexus One, and now the predictions for the Nexus One for this entire year, doesn’t seem to be quite encouraging. As per the reputed financial firm, Goldman Sachs, Google, that started this year with a bang due to the Nexus One, could end up with the total sales of only one million units sold for the entire year, down from a previous estimate of 3.5 million units in 2010.

Furthermore, the company has stated that, if Google brings out another phone, focuses on more aggressive advertising and adheres to more conventional means of sales, then the Nexus One could easily be looking at a sales figure of 2 million units in the year 2011.

Now could it mean that, Google’s Nexus One sales model has failed miserably? Let’s shed some light on the way Nexus One was launched. Unlike other smart phones from Nokia, Motorola etc. that are available to the consumers either from the dedicated wireless carriers or from standalone retail stores, Google Nexus One was launched as a unique smart phone that was only available by ordering for the device online, regardless of whether the users were going for the T-Mobile package or the unlocked version. Furthermore, almost the entire advertising campaign for the Nexus One was carried out online and the phone barely saw any exposure from other media mediums.

According to Goldman Sachs,

“We previously estimated that Google might sell 3.5 mn Nexus One units in 2010. Initial data-points were disappointing, possibly due to limited marketing and customer service challenges. Flurry estimated (based on mobile traffic) that Google sold 20,000 in the first week, and 80,000 in the first month, both annualizing to 1.0 mn. We forecast that Google sells 1.0 mn Nexus One units in FY2010, benefiting from US carriers other than T-Mobile, and non-US carriers such as Vodafone, promoting the device too, but suffering from limited marketing activity. We assume that Google rolls out a second Nexus handset, markets it more aggressively, and makes it available offline, and therefore forecast that Google sells 2 mn handsets per year in 2011 and future years.”

Viz ZDNet