Today is the big day, where the Nexus One by Google is released. I previously wrote a post on the price leak being a fake, and I was, in part right, while the price itself was correct, the T-Mobile lock in was not accurate. Rather, when you go to the website, and go to the checkout page, you get to choose what provider you would like to buy it with, or if you would like to buy it without any provider. At the time of this release, you can only buy it unlocked or with T-Mobile, however, as you can see from this screenshot, they have plans for other networks. However, if you click on the Verizon button, it takes you to the droid website.
It also appears that the Terms of Sale Policy is the same as the leaked one. This clarifies quite a bit. I was complaining about a few discrepancies in the policy, however, when we take into account that there are going to be multiple providers, each with a different price point, the Terms of Sale becomes logical.
This is a good thing. Unlike the iPhone, which is currently only provided on one network, you can get the Nexus One to work on any network, CDMA or GSM, however, it appears that currently, only the GSM model is available. This will promote competition among providers, and a network will no longer be able to rely upon having the exclusive on the best smartphone.
The hardware and software on the phone is nothing special, or rather, the presentation did not reveal anything out of the ordinary with the phone. And many articles on Engadget provide a good idea of what the phone provides.
The only thing that I am worried about is Google’s reputation. They have a reputation of just dropping products. To be fair, this usually only happens to products that are in beta, and they do not claim this is in beta. However, other than selling a few server based products to enterprise customers, they have little expertise in selling hardware. They are used to being able to release early, and release often. For phones, this doesn’t quite work. Unless you buy the incredibly expensive unlocked option, you are stuck with the phone for two years, and Google can’t just make a slight hardware change to their phone, as they are used to being able to do with their other products. I am not very worried about Google doping support for the phone in the near future, however when it happens, I also fear that Google won’t do a very good job announcing it.
All in all, I am still very excited for the phone, and now I’m debating about buying this one in a few months. I still think that there is a few things that they could fix, and I would also prefer a tablet to a phone, but I still am excited for this, and the general direction that Android is going in.
