It’s just about confirmed now: Google will sell its own phone, built by HTC and named the Nexus One.
Nexus One will launch in early January, 2010. It won’t be sold by any one carrier, but instead will be an unlocked GSM phone. In the U.S., that means T-Mobile and possibly AT&T, whose exclusivity deal with the iPhone is about to run out. It will be running Android 2.1.
And what is this mysterious new product? According to reports, Nexus One will sell directly to consumers, with software designed entirely in-house. It runs Android, the operating system for mobile phones that Google developed.
Google has 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 phone runs on a Snapdragon chip, has a super high-resolution OLED touchscreen, is thinner than the iPhone, has no keyboard, and two mics. The mic on the back of the phone helps eliminate background noise, and it also has a “weirdly” large camera for a phone. And if you don’t like the touchscreen keyboard, a voice-to-text feature is supposed to let you dictate emails and notes by speaking directly into the phone.
The direct sales move by Google could alienate wireless carriers and handset makers that offer Android phones and do not want to compete with Google, WSJ said adding that Google has repeatedly said that its goal is to have hundreds of Android phones rather than one. Just wait and see the suprise that Nexus One will bring us.
