Leaked documents from Google reveal pricing, special features
Before last night, here is what most of what the world knew about Google's upcoming Android-running smartphone named Nexus One: it will be manufactured by HTC Corporation, it may or may not be launched in January 2010, and it looks similar to other touchscreen mobile devices, like the iPhone.
Now, if a bundle of Google documents leaked to tech blog
Gizmodo can be trusted, we know a whole lot more.
Most importantly, in the spirit of Google's push for more open standards, the Nexus One, which will be sold at google.com/phone, will not at all be tied to any one carrier. Completely unlocked and unsubsidized, the phone will be marked at $530.
Giving us an idea of the price points that would be made available when purchasing through wireless carriers, T-Mobile will sell the phone for $180 with a 2-year mandatory contract. Complete data plans under such a contract (including 500 minutes and text messaging) would run customers $80 a month. The penalty for canceling a plan before the first 120 days would be the remainder for the price of an unsubsidized phone, or $350.
Further, only five Nexus One phones can be purchased under one Google account.
Aside from contract details, it looks like Google could be introducing a highly desirable feature to its new phone: an
automatic backup service. Unlike the Motorola Droid, which dons no similarly easy iPhone-like synchronization, the Nexus One may come with a dock which allows for streaming music and backing up of crucial phone data.
As the Nexus One's rumored release date looms ever closer, Android proponents are voicing their concerns more and more that the release of a Google-designed Android phone can't be good for Motorola Droid, which just got released in early November. Since the Droid seems to be more than
holding its own, though, we'll just have to see what may come.
Steven Loeb
