TechCrunch is reporting that Google is in the middle of testing an Android phone with a group of their employees. This phone will be manufactured by HTC, except this phone isn’t just another Android phone, it is the official Google branded phone we’ve all been hearing about for some time.
Google is building their own branded phone that they?ll sell directly and through retailers. They were long planning to have the phone be available by the holidays, but it has now slipped to early 2010. The phone will be produced by a major phone manufacturer but will only have Google branding (Microsoft did the same thing with their first Zunes, which were built by Toshiba).
There won?t be any negotiation or compromise over the phone?s design of features ? Google is dictating every last piece of it. No splintering of the Android OS that makes some applications unusable. Like the iPhone for Apple, this phone will be Google?s pure vision of what a phone should be.
Here are some of the reported details:
– Android 2.1
– Sold as an unlocked GSM phone
– Uses Snapdragon chip and is “really, really fast”
– Thinner than iPhone
– High-res OLED screen
– Two microphones, one to reduce background noise
– Touchscreen keyboard
– Voice to text for dictation
Also the WSJ has chimed in with an official report:
Google Inc. has designed a cellphone it plans to sell directly to consumers as soon as next year, according to people familiar with the matter.
The phone is called the Nexus One and is being manufactured for Google by HTC Corp., these people said. It runs Android, the operating system for mobile phones that Google developed, they added.
But unlike the more than half-dozen Android phones made by phone manufacturers today, Google designed virtually the entire software experience behind the phone, from the applications that run on it to the look and feel of each screen.
The Internet giant is taking a new, and potentially risky, approach to selling the device. Rather than selling the phone through a wireless carrier–the way the bulk of phones are sold in the U.S. today–Google plans to sell the Nexus One itself online. Users will have to buy cellular service for the device separately.
Google plans to sell the device directly to customers through an online store, and it will be up to the customer to buy cellular service for the device. The phone will be called Nexus One.
I suspect Google is selling the phone without service to try and boost market share in the way the iPod touch boosted market share for iPhone OS.
First thing that came to mind: “So much for the Droid”.
Photo courtesy of TheUnlockr.com
Continue reading:
- Everything New Apple Just Announced (Septembe
- Apple Watch Pre-Order
- Apple Research Kit launches with 5 Apps
- Apple TV now only $69
TAGS:
