Googlephone. Plus a Contract. No Big Whoop?

By  |  Monday, December 14, 2009 at 1:39 pm

Latest Googlephone rumor: Reuters is now reporting that Google’s Nexus One will be sold at a subsidized price on T-Mobile, possibly starting as soon as January 5th. Even if it’s also available unlocked and without a discount, a Googlephone that’s sold primarily through a carrier using the current contract-price business model sounds like it’s a lot less likely to be a game-changer. It might not amount to that much more than an HTC phone sold through T-Mobile, with a heavier quotient of Google in its its DNA (is that a mixed metaphor?) than usual…

 
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  1. Mark Sigal Says:
    December 14th, 2009 at 4:08 pm

    The timing of all of this is curious, though. Droid just launched, and both Verizon and Motorola have made a pretty significant bet on Android.

    To have the Google phone drop smack in the middle of Christmas buying season, certainly risks customers holding off on Droid, and waiting to see what Google will come out with for Verizon. Needless to say, the risk of that scenario playing out can’t make either Verizon or Motorola too happy right now.

    More to the point, when you position yourself as a platform for handset makers and carriers, and then turn tail and compete with them so early in the ecosystem seeding process, that has to be a wake up call that maybe the enemy of my enemy (Apple) is not my friend after all.

    The reasoning that Google may feel that they need to put destiny into their own hands RIGHT NOW is something that I blogged about in:

    Android’s ‘Inevitability’ and the Missing Leg
    http://bit.ly/87URNI

    Check it out, if interested.

    Mark

  2. NQ Logic Says:
    December 14th, 2009 at 5:04 pm

    Google is moving down in the stack to challenge B2C opponents with an open architecture and new sets of standards. In creating a post-revenue business model, Google can only manage success if consumers accept a co-branding and outsourced manufactured device … NQ Logic recommends reading about the rest of the new Google’s mobile strategy at http://www.nqlogic.com

  3. heulenwolf Says:
    December 15th, 2009 at 8:36 am

    Other than the giving consumers the choice of whether to pay Google up-front for the phone or pay T-Mobile over the life of the contract for the phone, I agree that the Nexus One is sounding less and less revolutionary as the facts come out. According to CNet’s Android Atlas – http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-10415222-251.html – the phone will only work on T-Mobile’s 3G network (in the US), not AT&T’s 3G. They based this conclusion on the frequencies tested in the FCC filings for the phone. Is there precedent for there being a second filing for the phone, tested at different frequencies?

    If not, I guess Google is just trying to improve on the available Android models on T-Mobile (G1, MyTouch, Cliq, and Behold II) with a hardware (Snapdragon chipset) and software (Android 2.1) refresh. Unless Google’s going to offer the phone with some major price break (i.e. below cost) outside of a contract due to the revenue they’ll make from advertising via all the integrated Google apps, I don’t see the point for the consumer of having this choice to buy the phone direct from Google. Its not like you can take the phone to another carrier of T-mobile doesn’t work for you. Choice certainly isn’t bad, but this is less choice than I’d hoped.