Linus Torvalds lauds Nexus One

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 8 Feb 2010 at 15:29

Linus Torvalds has confessed his love of the Nexus One, breaking a "long hatred of phones".

Writing on his blog, the Linux creator related how he'd finally broken down and bought a Nexus One, lured in by the idea of finding a phone running Linux that he could actually stand.

"I love the concept of having a phone that runs Linux, and I've had a number of them over the years (in addition to the G1, I had one of the early China-only Motorola Linux phones)," relates Torvalds.

"But my hatred of phones ends up resulting in me not really ever using them. The G1, for example, ended up being mostly used for playing Galaga and Solitaire on long flights, since I had almost no reason to carry it with me except when travelling."

I no longer feel like I'm dragging a phone with me 'just in case' I would need to get in touch with somebody

However, the combination of Google's free turn-by-turn navigation and pinch-to-zoom feature swayed the smartphone hater. "I no longer feel like I'm dragging a phone with me 'just in case' I would need to get in touch with somebody - now I'm having a useful (and admittedly pretty good-looking) gadget instead. The fact that you can use it as a phone too is kind of secondary," he says.

Google must hope Torvalds' enthusiasm is contagious. According to a recent Dow Jones report, the search giant has sold 80,000 Nexus One smartphones in the US during its first month. In contrast, the original iPhone sold 600,000 units in its first month, whereas Motorola sold 525,000 Droids.

What the figures fail to note is that the Nexus One is only being sold over the web and that Google has left marketing to word of mouth. This stands in stark contrast to Motorola, which reportedly backed the launch of the Droid with a $100 million advertising campaign.