The Nexus One isn't a revolution but the online store could be

Jan 6, 2010 09:17 GMT  ·  By

It's finally here, the worst kept secret in the tech world of late, the Google Nexus One smartphone. As with anything from Google these days, it got its fair share of hype and many were quick to claim that it would be the revolution all have been waiting for, the true iPhone killer and so on. Turns out, the phone itself isn't exactly a revolution, but what might be is the way Google is selling it, online and free of contract with the option to select the carrier you want, a dream come true for those in the US. Right now, though, the store holds more in promise than it actually delivers, but this should change soon enough.

"[T]oday we're pleased to announce a new way for consumers to purchase a mobile phone through a Google hosted web store. The goal of this new consumer channel is to provide an efficient way to connect Google's online users with selected Android devices. We also want to make the overall user experience simple: a simple purchasing process, simple service plans from operators, simple and worry-free delivery and start-up," Mario Queiroz, VP of Product Management at Google writes about the new online store.

Hosted at www.google.com/phone, the site is pretty much what you'd expect from Google, design wise. A clean, simple interface and a well laid out functionality. At this point, the store sells the newly unveiled Nexus One, Android's halo device, at least from Google's perspective. The phone was unveiled yesterday to an eager audience even though most of the details concerning the phone, its specs, the software, even the pricing were mostly known in advance.

By most accounts, the Nexus One is a great smartphone, it certainly packs some beefy hardware and a great display. It's at least on par with the Motorola Droid, the heralded Android flagship device of just a few weeks ago, and in some aspects better than it. It also holds its own against the Apple iPhone, so it's definitely fighting in the heavyweight. Being just as good or slightly better doesn't make it a revolution and the phone is mired with a few problems, some are its own fault others are inherent to the new way Google wants to sell it.

The real news with Nexus One and the real reason why Google's latest move is a big one is the online store. Google is saying that it plans to sell a number of devices, the Nexus One is just the first which is probably why it's carrying the 'one' moniker. The other devices may be Nexus Twos, Threes or what have you, they may be other phones from HTC, maybe even non-Android devices. Google doesn't really care, it's not planning on making money by selling hardware, what it wants is to disrupt the mobile phone landscape, at least in the US.

The vast majority of phones in the US are sold subsidized by the carriers, with contracts attached to them, and some are carrier exclusive. You want the iPhone you get AT&T and that's it. It was even worse before the iPhone came along when the carriers had all the power and the phone manufacturers were happy to do whatever they were asked to get their phones on the market.

Google wants to take that power away from the carriers and place it, expectedly, in its own. This way, consumers would first choose the phone, hopefully something with strong ties to Google, and then the carrier and the pricing plan that suits them. This sounds great in theory the problem is, right now, the options aren't there. Right now, if you want to buy the Nexus One in the US, you realistically still have only one carrier option. The Nexus One is a GMS phone meaning that it will only physically work on two networks in the US, AT&T and T-Mobile. If you go the AT&T route, though you don't get any 3G which renders the Nexus One, presumably a device you'll want to do a lot of web-related tasks with, useless.

This leaves you with a great range of options amounting to one: T-Mobile, which is the only carrier currently listed on the site as well. You could, of course, buy the phone unlocked, at the full price, but you'll still have to choose a network and since there isn't any actual choice you're still left with T-Mobile. Google says that Verizon will be an option in a couple of months and Europe will get Vodafone at that time too. If things go the way Google hopes others will follow, no doubt Google is negotiating right now with several others. Eventually, maybe in just a few months, buyers will have a real choice. For now, it remains just a good idea.

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The Nexus One isn't a revolution but the online store could be
The Google online phone store featuring the Nexus One
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