Let me preface this all by saying that from everything I've seen, the Nexus One looks like a really good phone overall. The Snapdragon processor looks to be awesome and I'm hopeful that it will become a standard for smartphones in the near future.
Now that that's over, let's get down to the nitty gritty. The Nexus One is essentially a myTouch 3G with a better screen and processor. They went to the trackball unlike the Samsung Moment's optical trackpad, which is largely irrelevant anyway given how well touchscreens work with Android. What does Android 2.1 add? Not a whole lot other than live animated wallpapers, which just uses more processor space anyway. Most importantly, it lacks a physical keyboard and multitouch, which is odd since it has the ability to have multitouch, but Google isn't supporting it as of now. At this point in the game, it's either one or the other, or both.
But that's not my main problem with the Nexus One. First off, it's headed to T-Mobile, America's worst 3G network, and web-centric phones kind of need a data network to back them up. But even beyond that, the way it's being sold makes little sense. You can get it unlocked for $530, which is not a bad price, or if you sign up brand new for T-Mobile and get it for $180. The catch? There is only one plan you can get, 500 minutes, unlimited text messaging and internet. Now I understand limiting it to data plans, but I can't understand why Google or T-Mobile would limit it to one minute breakdown. Already with T-Mobile and want one? Same deal, but the price jumps up a 100 bucks to $280.
I guess what I don't get is why such a smart company like Google is making such a bad decision like Nokia has been doing for years and hasn't learned for years. And the increasing disparity between the European and US versions of their products is concerning as well. Since it's Google I'm sure there's some grand reasoning behind it that we'll find out in a few months and will blow our minds, but I'd love to be clued in on the method behind the madness.
UPDATE: And now apparently Google is imposing it's own early termination fee on top of T-Mobile's for $350 if you cancel service within the first 120 days. Not even Nokia does this. What the hell???
There was another limiting factor I noticed on the device: it is capable of Wireless "N" in addition to the standard "B" and "G" bands, and yet for the time being, that has been disabled at the software level. It had initially been advertised on their website (www.google.com/phone) but pulled shortly there after. That would further enhance the web-centric functionality of the device.
ReplyDeleteGoogle does not care if the Nexus One is a success, they're just putting themselves out there. Google is not going to make much profit directly from phone sales. Even if they sell a lot, it will hardly rival their real billion dollar business, advertising. There's a demand for the Android OS, and Google has now tied itself in with a bunch of hardware manufacturers and phone carriers through Android and it's adoption by these companies. Now that Google has it's own phone out, and is essentially a competitor, these other players have to try and up Google with their own Android phones. I think Google set the bar lower then they could have to allow others to jump ahead. It's a solid phone, just not a revolutionary phone.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, it's all profit for Google, as they make money from ad revenue generated by various android apps/the traffic focused on their core web app platform and ads associated with those (Calendar, Gmail, etc). Google would be thrilled to have their phone be crushed by an onslaught of better android phones.
Excellent points, Zoasterboy. But I think ultimately setting the bar could ultimately hurt the Android "brand". People will associate it with devices like the Cliq and Nexus and not with ones like the Hero and Droid.
ReplyDeleteAnd in recent news, Google now announces how they will be assessing an "Equipment Recovery Fee" should the contract be cancelled within the first 120 days. That means for those who had to cancel in that time frame, they would automatically have to pay $550, or $30 more than just buying it unlocked. This'll get interesting too when Verizon Wireless jumps on board as their ETF on "advanced" devices is already $350, making it a $700 mistake if you had to leave.
ReplyDeleteAnd to continue in their mistakes, they finally released the Android 2.1 SDK a little over a week after the Nexus One released meaning that for this entire time, developers have not been able to write software for the platform which could have potentially even made some programs not run correctly.
The thing is, I don't want to see Google set themselves up for failure. They've been a game changer in so many other fields that I want to see them do so here as well. I do agree with Zoasterboy in that Google is doing this to promote competition (though I am significantly disappointed in how low they set the bar) and that for them, any extra phone out there is good for them in terms of ad revenue, but overall I'm still going to take the side that this phone is hurting more than helping. People will see this and associate it with Android overall, and then make connections of other flops when it comes time to make their buying decision.