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Google to sell range of Android phones online
06 January 2010
Google will add other phones that use its Android operating system to its online store following the launch of its own phone, the Nexus One
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Google
Android
Nexus One
HTC
Motorola
T-Mobile
Verizon
Vodafone
Rogers
Comment: This move by Google will go some way to settling the minds of vendors that have adopted the Android operating system, only to see Google threatening to take the market they have created with its own Nexus One. If Google gives all vendors — and operators — equal space for Android phones there will be a single marketplace for phones with this operating system.
Google has started to sell its own-branded phone, the HTC-made Nexus One, for use on the T-Mobile network in the US or on other GSM-family 3G networks. But the company is promising to sell other phones that use its Android operating system via its website.
The company is selling the unlocked phone for $529 without service or for $179 with a T-Mobile USA contract. Google says that a Vodafone version will be available in Europe in “spring 2010”, along with a CDMA version for Verizon Wireless in the US.
According to Google, the current version is unlocked and will recognize SIM cards from any mobile service provider using the GSM standard, but it points out that it is incompatible with the frequency band used in the US and Canada by the AT&T and Rogers networks for 3G data.
Until the CDMA version of Nexus One is ready, Google is pointing customers of Verizon Wireless in the US to Motorola and HTC-made phones using the same Google-backed Android operating system.
Google is selling the Nexus One through its own website — but Mario Queiroz, Google’s VP of product management, says that this site will be used to sell “selected Android devices” — implying other devices will be available from the site. “We also want to make the overall user experience simple: a simple purchasing process, simple service plans from operators, simple and worry-free delivery and start-up,” said Queiroz. “The first phone we’ll be selling through this new web store is the Nexus One,” he added.
There are already 20 devices using Android on the market, with 59 operators in 48 countries, said Google. GTB