The Ugly Truth Behind Google's Nexus One

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???