In case you haven’t been paying attention to the mountains of coverage, Google has announced the “real” GooglePhone, the NexusOne. A Snapdragon sporting, AMOLED adorned, Android 2.1 touched smartphone, the NexusOne is taking the tech sites by storm. Several people have asked me my thoughts on the new phone, and I decided to put them here.

Well, after the break anyway.

Is the NexusOne a game changer, is the first question I ask myself. I don’t think the phone itself is. While certainly one of (if not the) best spec’ed Android phones in theory. I can’t really say more without a hands-on, and as I am neither at CES nor do I think Google will be sending me a review unit (Google if you’re reading this, please feel free to prove me wrong). Still, the phone is just hardware. Hardware changes in an eye blink these days, and what was your top of the line Android phone yesterday is, well, the G1 today – usable, but not as neat or shiny as the Droid or Nexus.

What I do think is a possible game-changer is how Google is selling it. You can buy it direct from them, be it unlocked (and unsubsidized), on T-Mobile, or on Verizon. Now, buying from the manufacturer rather than service provider is hardly new. –Palm used to sell Treos & Centros of all stripes from their site, as well as unlocked options, and everyone anticipates the lines in front of Apple’s stores every time a new iPhone revision comes out. No, what’s different is a tiny notation on the order site: “Can’t wait for your Verizon Nexus One? Click here.” You can then order a Droid.

This is different. This is new. Imagine is Apple had said “Hey, the iPhone won’t be out for a bit. Why don’t you try an iPaq or a Treo?” Of course, the comparison is hardly 100% accurate – No matter what Android-powered device you buy, you’re buying Google. Google is getting mindshare on your phone, which they are clearly seeing as the more important thing here, and they may be right.

Google is hardly the first company to sell an OS & hardware while licensing the OS. Palm did it & Apple both did it. In Palm’s case, they reaped the benefit of a clause allowing them to incorporate licensees tweaks (for example, the “virtual” graffiti area, first implemented by HandEra), but eventually led to some decisions that undoubtedly harmed Palm as a company (spinning the OS division off, at a point when their only remaining licensee was Sony, and having to buy it back could not have been the best move for one’s bottom line). In Apple’s case, the death of the Apple clones is seen as one of the defining moments of the Return of Jobs, and it’s certainly served them well (much to Pystar’s chagrin).

Indeed, mentioning Apple brings to mind their first foray into the phone market, the ROKR, by Motorola. At a time when mock-ups of ApplePhones were all over the web, Apple tested the water with a phone that was clearly widely desired, and just as widely reviled. The mistakes of the RORK were abject lessons in designing the iPhone, and I’d hazard to say a factor in the success of that product in winning the hearts and minds of the public. With Android, Google has taken the steps made by their licensees, and built on them to make a really great second gen OS, as well as an excellent hardware device to run that OS on. They’ve even learned from Apple in controlling the marketplace for their product. Whereas Apple’s game changer was demanding to be partners with the providers, Google’s strategy, at this early game, seems to be to treat the cell companies almost as ISPs – you can buy the phone without one, or get it bundled at a reduced price (shades of Compuserve). Yes, you have more choices than if you buy an iPhone, but in that case you’re buying service AND a phone. In this case you’re buying a phone, and service is an afterthought. Google doesn’t care who you go with, so long as you buy their hardware. Even then, if you don’t want to wait they’ll still point you at a licensee. The goal is clearly to have Google be your interface. I’m not trying to make it sound like Google is out to control your mind or something tin-foil-hat like that, but they’d certainly like to continue their market dominance.

In summation, my thoughts on the NexusOne – the product is neat and may be awesome, but it is what could be behind it that interests me, personally.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 12:46 pm and is filed under Android, Apple Talk, Cell Phones, Google, Mobile Culture, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.