Hey Google, Anyone Home?

NY Times

Google’s celebrated algorithms may power the Web’s most popular search engine, but they have not yet been programmed to answer a call when a customer has a problem.

New owners of the Nexus One, the latest touch-screen smartphone to run on Android, Google’s mobile operating system, have found themselves at a loss when it comes to resolving problems with the handset. They cannot call Google for help, and the company warns that it may take up to 48 hours to respond to e-mail messages.

Unlike other phones that run on Android, like the Motorola Droid or the T-Mobile G1, the Nexus One was developed and branded by Google and is sold directly by the company to customers.

But ever since the phone went on sale Jan. 5, customer forums have been filled with a cacophony of gripes about the Nexus One. And Google, more accustomed to providing minimal support for its free services, has been unprepared to deal with the higher service expectations of customers who are paying as much as $529 for its high-end smartphone.

Early buyers of the device, like Kiran Konathala, a 27-year-old database programmer in Long Branch, N.J., have complained of dropped calls, plodding download speeds and connectivity snags. “The hardware is great, but the software is a mess,” he said. “It’s not been a happy experience so far.”

The phone presents a puzzle for users like Mr. Konathala: Who do you call when you have a problem?

Most people use the phone on T-Mobile’s network, which offers a subsidy if a customer buys a contract, and the phone is made by HTC, a major Taiwanese manufacturer. But it is sold exclusively by Google through a special Web-based store.

Despite its central role in the process, Google does not appear to have built a significant infrastructure to provide customer support. There is no phone number for support, for example, and customers who send an e-mail message may wait for days to hear back.

“So far, I have yet to hear from an actual person,” said Mr. Konathala, who first contacted Google for help on Jan. 6. “All I’ve gotten are canned replies.”

Katie Watson, a Google spokeswoman, said no one was available to speak about the service problems. But in an e-mail statement, she said, “Solving customer support issues is extremely important to us.”

She added that Google was working to address problems quickly. “We’re flexible and prepared to make changes to our processes and tools, as necessary, for an optimal customer support experience,” she wrote.

Andy Rubin, Google vice president for engineering in charge of Android technology, acknowledged last week that the company needed to improve. “We have to get better at customer service,” Mr. Rubin said during an on-stage interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Instead of taking three days to respond to e-mail messages, he said, “We have to close that three-day gap to a couple of hours.” But Mr. Rubin said that the release of the Nexus One had gone smoothly.

Some analysts said that Google appeared to have misjudged the service demands that come with being in the business of selling sophisticated gadgets.

“They may have been clouded by their own personal experience and way of thinking about how they deal with technology,” said Charles S. Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. “They’ve got a long way to go in terms of understanding all the components of the retail process — not just selling phones but the after-sales care — to be as skilled in this endeavor as they are in the rest of their endeavors.”

A spokesman for T-Mobile, David Henderson, said that although the Nexus One was not being sold through T-Mobile retail stores, sales representatives knew enough about the family of Android-powered devices to help customers with some questions.

T-Mobile, which addressed the connectivity problems in its support forums, said it was working with HTC and Google to determine the root cause of the problems some Nexus One users were reporting.

Google is not unfamiliar with the business of charging for products. More than a million businesses pay to place ads on Google’s search engine or on Google’s vast network for publishing partners.

But the Nexus One is Google’s first foray into selling hardware directly to consumers.

Relying heavily on automated responses and Internet forums to handle customer service queries may not be sufficient for that kind of device, said Soumen Ganguly, a principal at Altman Vilandrie & Company, a Boston consulting firm that specializes in the communications industry.

“Selling someone a piece of consumer electronics is a very different ballgame,” Mr. Ganguly said. “If you’re a cellphone user and this is your primary phone, waiting one to two days for a response is a long time.”

With the Nexus One, Google aims to extend the reach of its Android operating system for mobile phones. And it hopes to eventually change the retail model of the cellphone market in the United States by becoming a major seller of Android phones made by various manufacturers.

But if that is the goal, it will need to impose a better customer support strategy, Mr. Ganguly said. “Right now, they’re leaving troubleshooting up to the customer,” he said.

Some analysts said the early missteps were fixable. But a black eye from customer complaints could hurt Google’s longer-term goals.

“Having a consumer backlash because of their lack of customer support is not going to help its cause,” said Youssef Squali, an analyst with Jefferies & Company.

Google Set To Market The Nexus One

Wall Street Journal

Google Inc. plans to begin selling a cellphone directly to consumers as soon as next year, people familiar with the matter said, escalating the Internet giant's assault on the traditional business model of the wireless industry.

The phone, called Nexus One, was designed inside Google and will be sold, at least initially, without a wireless partner, these people said. It is the latest sign of the Internet giant's ever-broadening wireless ambitions as Google hunts for ways to expand its Internet services beyond computers. The move, details of which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal on its Web site Saturday, also marks a new front in its growing rivalry with Apple Inc.

As Internet usage has shifted to mobile phones, Google has repeatedly tried to break wireless carriers' tight grip on the services and devices they allow on their networks. It has been lobbying the government to open up cellular networks and unused TV airwaves to a broad group of devices.

At the same time, Google has purchased and developed technologies that can replace existing communications services. One example is Google Voice, an Internet calling and routing service. Some analysts speculate that Google could eventually deliver very cheap or subsidized service to consumers on its own, in exchange for advertising. The company recently purchased a start-up called Gizmo5, whose service allows users to make Internet calls from mobile phones.

Rather than selling the Nexus One phone through a wireless carrier -- as the bulk of phones are sold in the U.S. today -- Google plans to sell the Nexus One itself online, people familiar with the matter said, although the company may seek wireless partnerships in the future. Users would have to buy their wireless service separately. The phone's pricing, along which countries Google initially will target for the device, couldn't be learned.

While the move gives Google flexibility to distribute software services such as email and maps without playing by wireless carriers' rules, the company risks making new enemies among companies whose trust it has tried to win.

A Google spokeswoman declined to comment on how the phone might be received. In a blog post Saturday, Google said it was testing a new device running Android with its employees to "experiment with new mobile features and capabilities."

Google has spent the past year wooing hardware makers and wireless carriers to build phones running its Android mobile operating system, which it announced in 2007 and which went live in phones in 2008.

As of October, nine Android devices had been announced with 32 carriers, including Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc., a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG. HTC Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc. and Motorola Inc. have launched or announced mobile devices based on Android.

Some of those companies are likely to be "ticked off" by Google building its own phone, said Charles Golvin, a wireless industry analyst with Forrester Research. Companies that haven't invested heavily in Android yet may think twice before doing so, he said.

But he doesn't think it will cause larger companies like Motorola to back away. "There are also a lot of benefits for the Android platform that they are reaping anyway," he said, citing the fact it is free to license, provides access to Android developers and Google's marketing clout. A Motorola spokesman declined to comment.

Google's move comes as the market for high-end phones is expanding rapidly but growing increasingly competitive. For example, Dell Inc. has announced plans to offer phones in China and Brazil; people familiar with the matter say the computer maker also has plans to release an Android-based phone in the U.S.

Microsoft Corp., which is a major supplier of software for cellphones, has been increasing its focus on designing hardware that works with its mobile-phone software, as part of its collaboration with handset makers. But company executives have said repeatedly they have no plans to make a Microsoft mobile phone.

Google has been considering developing a phone for years. In a 2008 interview, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said the company hadn't ruled out a phone but its focus was on getting as many partners to adopt its software as possible.

But Google focused more on designing a phone in the past year, one person familiar with its efforts said, as the company battled to get some partners to accept its software. This summer Google complained to the Federal Communications Commission that Apple had not yet allowed its Google Voice service to run on the iPhone, for example.

At the same time, software developers have dedicated less effort to Android than the iPhone, in part because of the latter's widespread popularity. Such applications, from games to collaboration services, are a big selling point for consumers.

"We still haven't seen an Android phone that competes with the iPhone," said Sam Altman, chief executive of Loopt Inc., a mobile social-networking service. "Google could still miss the iPhone mark, but at least they have a chance of making a phone that everyone wants, which would then make it attractive for developers."

The Nexus One has a touch screen, like the iPhone, according to people who have seen it, with a few buttons along the bottom. These people say the phone is being manufactured by HTC, which also built the first Android phone to hit the market, T-Mobile's G1 phone.

Unlike other Android phones made by phone manufacturers today, Google designed virtually the entire software experience behind the phone, from the applications that run on it to the look and feel of each screen, they added.

Google has kept at least two carriers -- Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA, which have been high-profile partners on Android phone launches -- informed about its new phone, according to people familiar with the matter. These people said Google has left open the possibility that it could sell the phone through a carrier's store at some point, too. (Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC).

AT&T, which has exclusive rights to offer Apple's iPhone in the U.S., has tangled publicly with Google on regulatory issues and is the one U.S. carrier that doesn't yet offer an Android phone. An AT&T spokesman declined to comment.

A Sprint spokeswoman said the carrier would be open to working with Google to make the business model work, but declined to comment further.

Google's direct sales strategy bypasses how phones are usually sold in the U.S. wireless industry. Carriers typically sell phones that are locked, meaning they will only work on a certain network, and require a service contract. In return for a hand in developing and selling phones, carriers take on the bulk of marketing and often subsidize the cost of the phone to the customer. They recoup the subsidy over the life of a customer's contract.

Whether Google plans to subsidize the phone -- which analysts cite as an important factor in whether it can go mainstream -- remains unclear. So does the process for how users may sign up for cellular service.

Outside the U.S., consumers often have more freedom to buy their phones and cellular service separately, making it easier for the Google phone to gain traction.

Some U.S. carriers, such as AT&T, allow users to buy their phone service separately from handsets -- which typically feature a removable card containing subscriber information that can be moved among devices. Others, such as Verizon, will activate some phones consumers bring to them even if they don't sell them directly, analysts say.

Some companies, such as Nokia Corp., have sold unlocked phones in the U.S., but the devices have so far gained little traction.