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Nexus One escalates Google's budding rivalry with Apple's iPhone
Robert Galbraith / AP
An image of the Nexus One phone is projected on a screen during a news conference at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - It's official: Google Inc. will sell its own mobile phone in an effort to protect its online advertising empire as people increasingly surf the Web on handsets instead of personal computers.
The phone announced Tuesday had been widely anticipated since Google handed out the device, called the Nexus One, to its own employees three weeks ago.
Consumers will be able to buy the Nexus One for $179 if they commit to a two-year service contract with T-Mobile USA. The phone is going on sale Tuesday online.
Google also will offer versions of the Nexus One that will give people the option of selecting the wireless networks of other major carriers. That's a departure from the way most mobile phones have been sold in the U.S.
The price of these so-called "unlocked" phones will be $529.
Verizon Wireless in the U.S. and Vodafone in Europe will begin offering subsidies on the Nexus One this spring, according to Google executives.
The Nexus One escalates Google's budding rivalry with former Silicon Valley ally, Apple Inc., which has sold more than 30 million iPhones in the past 2 1/2 years. Apple announced a deal Tuesday to buy mobile advertising service Quattro Wireless to counter Google's proposed $750 acquisition of Quattro rival AdMob.
Google Inc.'s vision for how a mobile phone should be made and sold will likely raise the stakes in the Internet search leader's bid to gain more control over how people surf the Web while they're on the go.
In its invitation to todays announcement, Google said the wireless market had only seen "the beginning of what's possible" with the free Android operating system that it introduced for mobile phones in late 2007.
Android was designed to make it easier to interact on a mobile phone with Web sites and services, including Google's, while providing an egalitarian platform to run applications developed by outside programmers.
The applications don't have to go through an extensive review before they can be distributed to Android-powered devices, a contrast from the control that Apple Inc. holds on its hot-selling iPhone.
Until now, Google has been content to let other companies design the devices relying on Android. And those devices thus far have largely been distributed like most other mobile phones, tethered to major wireless carriers that typically require buyers to lock into two-year contracts in return for discounts on the handsets.
But Google now appears to be ready to push its operating system in a new direction while trying to give consumers more flexibility to connect a mobile phone with the wireless carrier of their choice.
Offering more options
Google intends to stamp its own brand on the Nexus One and sell it directly to consumers over the Web, leaving it up to the buyers to pick their own carriers, according to reports published in technology blogs and major newspapers. That could open new possibilities while igniting new tensions in the mobile phone market.
Just how much Nexus One shakes things up will likely hinge on the phone's price.
Video
Google Expected to Unveil Smartphone
Jan. 5: Jan. 5: Google is expected to unveil its highly anticipated smartphone Tuesday. CNBC's Jim Goldman has the details.
CNBC
Most smart phones designed for Web access sell for $50 to $200, thanks to subsidies provided by wireless carriers in return for commitments to service plans that cost $800 to $1,000 a year. The Nexus One is $179 with the two-year T-Mobile contract. Consumers who wish to buy an unlocked phone (without the contract) will be charged $529 a price orbiting a range that most consumers have been unwilling to pay, especially in a shaky economy.
T-Mobile has agreed to provide a subsidy for a Nexus One that works on its wireless network, an agreement wouldn't represent a substantial change from the status quo.
Yet Google appears to be betting that the Nexus One will make a big enough splash to persuade other major U.S. wireless carriers AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. to subsidize the device, too, said technology analyst Rob Enderle.
"If enough customers want this phone, the carriers will have no choice but to follow," he predicted.
That would also break the traditional practice of giving carriers the right to sell specific models exclusively for a certain period.
A smart phone that empowers consumers to choose from a variety of carriers could post a threat to the iPhone, which is tied exclusively to AT&T in the United States. That tie-in has spurred complaints from some iPhone users who say AT&T's network bogs down amid heavy Web traffic, particularly in big cities such as New York and San Francisco.
With the competition between the two companies heating up, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple's board five months ago.
Click for related content
Google sharpens mobile focus with 'Nexus One'
Google may sell its own phone
Cell phone mania forces scramble for airwaves
Selling its own phone also could foster more resentment toward Google among the business partners that have been backing Android as a viable alternative to the mobile operating systems made by Apple, BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion Ltd. and Microsoft Corp.
Verizon, for instance, has raised consumer awareness about Android during the past two months by bankrolling a marketing blitz for the Droid phone made by Motorola Inc.
In an effort to keep the peace, Google probably will try to position the Nexus One as a way to encourage even more innovation with its Android system, said Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin.
"They might tell everyone in the Android ecosystem, 'We applaud you for what you have done so far, we just want to take things even further and think we can help light the way,'" Golvin said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34709344/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/?gt1=43001
Robert Galbraith / APAn image of the Nexus One phone is projected on a screen during a news conference at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - It's official: Google Inc. will sell its own mobile phone in an effort to protect its online advertising empire as people increasingly surf the Web on handsets instead of personal computers.
The phone announced Tuesday had been widely anticipated since Google handed out the device, called the Nexus One, to its own employees three weeks ago.
Consumers will be able to buy the Nexus One for $179 if they commit to a two-year service contract with T-Mobile USA. The phone is going on sale Tuesday online.
Google also will offer versions of the Nexus One that will give people the option of selecting the wireless networks of other major carriers. That's a departure from the way most mobile phones have been sold in the U.S.
The price of these so-called "unlocked" phones will be $529.
Verizon Wireless in the U.S. and Vodafone in Europe will begin offering subsidies on the Nexus One this spring, according to Google executives.
The Nexus One escalates Google's budding rivalry with former Silicon Valley ally, Apple Inc., which has sold more than 30 million iPhones in the past 2 1/2 years. Apple announced a deal Tuesday to buy mobile advertising service Quattro Wireless to counter Google's proposed $750 acquisition of Quattro rival AdMob.
Google Inc.'s vision for how a mobile phone should be made and sold will likely raise the stakes in the Internet search leader's bid to gain more control over how people surf the Web while they're on the go.
In its invitation to todays announcement, Google said the wireless market had only seen "the beginning of what's possible" with the free Android operating system that it introduced for mobile phones in late 2007.
Android was designed to make it easier to interact on a mobile phone with Web sites and services, including Google's, while providing an egalitarian platform to run applications developed by outside programmers.
The applications don't have to go through an extensive review before they can be distributed to Android-powered devices, a contrast from the control that Apple Inc. holds on its hot-selling iPhone.
Until now, Google has been content to let other companies design the devices relying on Android. And those devices thus far have largely been distributed like most other mobile phones, tethered to major wireless carriers that typically require buyers to lock into two-year contracts in return for discounts on the handsets.
But Google now appears to be ready to push its operating system in a new direction while trying to give consumers more flexibility to connect a mobile phone with the wireless carrier of their choice.
Offering more options
Google intends to stamp its own brand on the Nexus One and sell it directly to consumers over the Web, leaving it up to the buyers to pick their own carriers, according to reports published in technology blogs and major newspapers. That could open new possibilities while igniting new tensions in the mobile phone market.
Just how much Nexus One shakes things up will likely hinge on the phone's price.
Jan. 5: Jan. 5: Google is expected to unveil its highly anticipated smartphone Tuesday. CNBC's Jim Goldman has the details.
CNBC
Most smart phones designed for Web access sell for $50 to $200, thanks to subsidies provided by wireless carriers in return for commitments to service plans that cost $800 to $1,000 a year. The Nexus One is $179 with the two-year T-Mobile contract. Consumers who wish to buy an unlocked phone (without the contract) will be charged $529 a price orbiting a range that most consumers have been unwilling to pay, especially in a shaky economy.
T-Mobile has agreed to provide a subsidy for a Nexus One that works on its wireless network, an agreement wouldn't represent a substantial change from the status quo.
Yet Google appears to be betting that the Nexus One will make a big enough splash to persuade other major U.S. wireless carriers AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. to subsidize the device, too, said technology analyst Rob Enderle.
"If enough customers want this phone, the carriers will have no choice but to follow," he predicted.
That would also break the traditional practice of giving carriers the right to sell specific models exclusively for a certain period.
A smart phone that empowers consumers to choose from a variety of carriers could post a threat to the iPhone, which is tied exclusively to AT&T in the United States. That tie-in has spurred complaints from some iPhone users who say AT&T's network bogs down amid heavy Web traffic, particularly in big cities such as New York and San Francisco.
With the competition between the two companies heating up, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple's board five months ago.
Click for related content
Google sharpens mobile focus with 'Nexus One'
Google may sell its own phone
Cell phone mania forces scramble for airwaves
Selling its own phone also could foster more resentment toward Google among the business partners that have been backing Android as a viable alternative to the mobile operating systems made by Apple, BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion Ltd. and Microsoft Corp.
Verizon, for instance, has raised consumer awareness about Android during the past two months by bankrolling a marketing blitz for the Droid phone made by Motorola Inc.
In an effort to keep the peace, Google probably will try to position the Nexus One as a way to encourage even more innovation with its Android system, said Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin.
"They might tell everyone in the Android ecosystem, 'We applaud you for what you have done so far, we just want to take things even further and think we can help light the way,'" Golvin said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34709344/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/?gt1=43001
