Google launches Nexus One to rival iPhone

Thursday 07 January 2010 | By Heidi Scott, Gosh! Media Copywriter

At a launch event on Tuesday at its HQ in Mountain View, California, search giant Google unveiled its first ever piece of hardware: the Nexus One smartphone. Google wants this sleek, touchscreen device to steal market share from Apple's iPhone, RIM's BlackBerry and Nokia.

Manufactured in partnership with the Taiwanese firm HTC, Nexus One features the latest version of Google's Android operating system (2.1). The company launched Android – on one device with one operator in one country – just over a year ago, but now there are a total of 20 Android devices with 59 operators in 48 countries worldwide.

Google has set up its own Internet shop through which people can get a handset either direct from Google or tied to one of several mobile operators – initially T-mobile in the US and Vodafone in Europe. The price tag is a cool $529 (£331) from Google or $179 (£112) on a T-Mobile contract. Those buying an unlocked phone will be able to use it as a GSM phone on almost any network. One thing's for sure: Google's emergence as a retailer is bound to upset the bods at Apple and stir up the rivalry between these two giants.

At the press conference, Google described the Nexus One as "a point of convergence where the web meets phone and an example of what is possible on mobile through Android". Peter Chou, HTC Chief Executive, added, "You will see it pushes the limits of what is possible on a mobile phone today." Raising expectations still further, Andy Rubin, Google's VP of Engineering, commented in a press release, "The Nexus One belongs in the emerging class of devices which we call 'superphones', with the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ chipset making it as powerful as your laptop computer of three to four years ago."

A key feature of the new phone is the facility to enter text without typing, which is available in a number of applications. A voice-enabled keyboard allows users to speak a text message, tweet, update Facebook or send an e-mail, for example. Another nifty feature is its tiny trackball, which makes navigating web pages fast and prevents fingerprint smudges on the 3.7-inch touchscreen.

As with most new technology, the initial market response has been mixed. Many industry pundits don't see Nexus One as an iPhone killer, although they do think that Apple will have to step up its game. TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington was more positive: "The Nexus One is an important milestone in the smartphone market," he said. "This is a software company frustrated with making compromises with hardware manufacturers, that has taken the product bull by the horns. When combined with Google Voice, there is no phone on the market today that can touch the Nexus One."

But Nexus One has to be a really great product if it's to achieve Google's objective of winning market share from rival firms Nokia (39%), RIM (21%) and Apple (17%). Other Android devices account for only some 3.5% of the market today.

Google's Nexus One smartphone

If you're thinking that Google has lost sight of its core business – selling on-line advertising – think again. Google also announced on 5 January its plan to launch 'pay to call' adverts for mobile phones, which will work in a similar way to the 'pay to click' ads that account for a healthy slice of Google's revenue.

Some experts believe Google should have been more radical in its pricing strategy. "It would have been nice to see them roll out something a bit more unique," Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineLand.com, told BBC News.
"Google has speculated in the past that there one day might be phones that are entirely ad-supported and because Google is this huge ad behemoth, this was a natural opportunity to roll out a phone like that." Maybe that's coming next from Mountain View.

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