The Google Phone, AKA Nexus One, is now available from Google's new Web store to be supported by T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone initially.
Looking for the Google Phone? Check it out at google.com/phone, oh, and while you're at it you might just as well buy it right there and then, with the carrier of your choice as part of the package. The last part there is not entirely true at the moment, but that's what Google is currently working towards. T-Mobile is the first carrier to participate in Google's new online sales effort, while Verizon Wireless and Vodafone will follow later in 2010. More carriers will be added as agreements are made.
According to Google, the new Web store opens in the United States today, while phones can be shipped to the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong. The first phone available is the new Nexus One by Google and manufactured by HTC.
Although the Nexus One will offer several new services and applications not currently available on other Android smartphones, Google says that the plan is to make them all available for Open Handset Alliance members. Here's Google's own official description of the Nexus One:
We're very excited about today's launch of Nexus One, the newest Android-powered phone running the latest Android 2.1 software. Nexus One comes with all your favorite Google Mobile apps pre-installed: find the classics like Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube and Google Talk, with additional goodies like Maps Navigation and Google Voice. With its 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, these apps are speedier than ever before.
Additionally, Nexus One has a few cool new features like a voice-enabled keyboard for any text field; this way, you can speak to your phone and it does the text messaging, email writing, or search querying for you. Try adding the new YouTube widget to one of the five customizable home screen panels to quickly access the videos you want with just a few clicks. Explore your Picasa Web Albums with the 3D interface of the new Cooliris Gallery application. With Nexus One's 3.7" AMOLED display, your videos, apps, and photos are larger, clearer, and sharper.
According to Google's Q&A session, as reported by CNet, the Nexus One will be available through Google's new Web store only, at least initially. There's no word on whether we'll soon see "With Google" stores or store sections appearing in the real world, but the fact that quite a few potential Android users would want to actually do some hands-on testing before making a purchase is a given no matter how you look at it.
The Web only offering at the time being could also be part of Google's step-by-step strategy, which would give the OHA members time to come up with more phones that would better fit Google's new sales channel. With all the phones each Android manufacturer come up with in a given year, it's not hard to imagine seeing some of them being tailored for this new strategy.
That said, Motorola's Sanjay Jha noted that the Motorola Droid will for instance receive the new software features currently offered by the Nexus One in due time, meaning that Google's Web store won't be the exclusive provider of the latest and greatest Google has to offer for too long.
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