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Google has sold about 135,000 HTC Nexus One phones in the 74 days since the device launched, a rate that’s about eight times lower than Motorola’s Droid and Apple’s original iPhone, says mobile analytics company Flurry.

During the same amount of time, Verizon sold about 1.05 million Droids, while the original iPhone sold 1 million.

By comparison, the iPhone 3GS sold 1.6 million units in just one week.

Flurry chose to look at Nexus One’s popularity over 74 days because it took Apple’s original iPhone that many days to cross 1 million units in sales, says the company.

“The comparison is interesting because the iPhone and Nexus One each represent Apple and Google’s first fully branded handsets,” wrote Peter Farago, vice-president of marketing for Flurry in a blog post. “We add the Motorola Droid as a point of comparison, and because it’s the fastest selling Android phone to date.”

The numbers should come as no surprise to mobile phone enthusiasts and industry executives, though Google has never disclosed exactly how many Nexus Ones are in the hands of customers to date.

In January, Google introduced the Nexus One as the first Android device that would be sold by the search company itself, rather than a manufacturing or carrier partner. The device retails for $180 with a 2-year T-Mobile contract, while an unsubsidized version is available for $530. But consumers can only buy it through Google’s online store.

The Nexus One, however, debuted to a host of complaints from users unhappy with the poor customer support from Google, which offered no phone or in-store help. Last month, Google finally introduced a phone support line. The Nexus One has also faced device-related issues, such as its inability to effectively connect to T-Mobile’s 3G network and complaints about the touchscreen.

Google’s phone also lacks the “‘wow’ factor that is now expected with each new challenger to the iPhone,” said Farago earlier this year. In January, Flurry estimated that Google sold about 20,000 Nexus One in the first week, compared to 250,000 for the Motorola Droid and 1.6 million for the iPhone 3G.

Interestingly, sales of the Motorola Droid edged out the first generation iPhone in the first 74 days. Farago says when the iPhone first made its debut, consumers’ perception of a mobile computing device was different. Most smartphone users who had data plans used it just to check e-mail or occasionally surf the internet.

But the iPhone changed that. Third party applications and mobile browsers that could render web pages on the phone as attractively on the PC led to an explosion in the use of smartphones.

“Until the iPhone was introduced, most consumers, especially in the U.S. had thought of their phones as, well, just phones,” says Farago.

As one of the most anticipated Android phones, the Droid benefited from the increased consumer interest and demand for smartphones. Droid also launched on Verizon Wireless, whose subscriber base last year was higher compared to AT&T in 2007.  Verizon backed the Droid launch with advertising support of at least $100 million.

Meanwhile, Nexus One’s sales indicate that Google may have made a mis-step in its decision to sell the device directly through its online store. Add to that the choice of T-Mobile as the launch partner and its not that difficult to understand why the Nexus One isn’t sweeping the popularity polls.

See Also:

• Google Nexus One Leaves Customers Sour
• Google Nexus One
• Google Debuts Android-Powered Nexus One ‘Superphone’
• HTC Clones Nexus One, Launches 3 New Phones