Google Announces Jan. 5 Android Event
This just in: Google will host an Android press gathering at its global HQ on Jan. 5 (click on image below to enlarge). Presumably, the event will have something to do with the company’s Nexus One, an Android phone that Google plans to sell on its own Web site and perhaps through T-Mobile as well.
Google’s (GOOG) choice of date here is an interesting one. By scheduling the event just before the official start of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 7 (and hours before the first CES press briefings begin), the company would seem to be taking a page from the Steve Jobs’s playbook–sucking some air out of the annual event.
Remember, Apple (AAPL) upstaged CES in a very big way back in 2007 when it announced the iPhone. It appears that Google is attempting something similar here. Question is, does the Nexus One have the same sort of…gadget gravitas to pull focus from CES?
Comments
It's not 2 days before CES. The show opens to the press on Wednesday, and there a bunch of press conferences that day as well as the Asus press event on Tuesday.
I, for one, can't be in Seattle because I'm already planning on being at the Asus event. This was not the smartest move on the part of Google.
Posted by nate_the_greatest at December 29th, 2009 at 6:34 pmRight you are. I updated the post accordingly.
Posted by JohnPaczkowski at December 29th, 2009 at 7:02 pmOoh, ooh.
Posted by davebarnes at December 29th, 2009 at 7:33 pmiPhone killer.
Watching Android rollout to date, I am left with two conflicting data points. One, is that everyone I talk to within Google is supremely confident that the data (that they are looking at) suggests that they are poised to win in the market. Two, I am confused relative to the battles and war analogy, what is the battle they are fighting and what is the war that they expect to win.
By that, I mean at this stage they are not in the same league to win the potential iPhone buyer, as Android lacks on hardware design, developer tools, media, apps momentum and marketplace. Yet, based upon RIM's last quarter, it's not like they are taking share from the Blackberry. Hence, best guess is that they are REALLY going after the Nokia and Symbian ecosystem, which is fine and logical, as it represents a comparable structure in terms of variety of device form-factors, multi-carrier approach and Nokia/Symbian has a dispirited developer base, so low hanging fruit.
The only paradox is that to win that audience, you can't be effectively competing with the handset guys (i.e., Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG) in either soft or hard form (by anointing a preferred device/partner or formally branding, marketing a Google device). Yet, to not do so is to guarantee that the distance between iPhone and Android only grows.
Personally, I think that they have misread the market, and face a choice between a fragmented market or abandoning their open credo and trying to go toe-to-toe with Apple in areas that Google hasn't proven to be strong at; namely, hardware design, user experience, developer tools, etc.
Posted by hypermark at December 29th, 2009 at 9:24 pmNexus One is not about the phone, it's about the business model. Google introduces a $199 unlocked device to the market, that is 15x less money on the table compared to signing 2-year contracts on any of the existing devices.
Posted by Charbax at December 29th, 2009 at 10:03 pmI am sure Google will show the Nexus One at CES as well, or even have it available for sale in stores around Las Vegas by then.
Posted by Charbax at December 29th, 2009 at 10:04 pmFair enough, and reasoned perspective, but these things don't occur in a vacuum.
If you are Motorola, and you now see that Google is inching their way to a direct to consumer play, does that dampen your enthusiasm for Android, do you care even less if decisions that your hardware/software guys make fragment the Android platform? I think that you look at them with a bit more jaundiced eyes, less pure than you did 6-9 months ago, as it's now less clear that they are playing the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” hand.
I am just saying that between: 1) cultivating an open mobile platform ecosystem; 2) growing a worthy iPhone Killer; and 3) disrupting the carrier billing/lock-in model
Each choice has intended and unintended consequences. Love or hate Apple, you can see very clearly what they are trying to do, as it's all very synergistic with their strategic/tactical arc.
With Google, it feels a bit more ad hoc.
Posted by hypermark at December 29th, 2009 at 10:16 pmSo what you're saying is, I can buy a Nexus One and use it as a paperweight and save 15x the cost of a functioning smartphone? Who is going to do that? The device has a 2 year life span … 24 months of cell service with data plan is on the table no matter what kind of spooky accounting you use to pretend it's not. You still pay for the hardware up front and the service monthly like everyone else. It only costs $175 to cancel an AT&T contract and unlock an iPhone or other smartphone, you are not on the hook for months you don't end up using.
Also, I'm not sure if I understand what the benefit of the “unlocked” device is when the Nexus One phones that we've seen so far only run on T-Mobile in the United States. Is it really unlocked or is it just only halfway setup? Once you buy it for $199 you have to go separately to T-Mobile and do the rest. Maybe there will be 3 additional models that can run on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, but the same would apply, you're committing to a specific carrier when you buy a phone that only runs on their network. The awful overlapping monopolies setup of the US cell market is not going to change overnight. Not even for Google, who have only 2% market share in phones and a smaller market cap than Apple.
A data plan from T-Mobile is $40/month for unlimited data ($30/month gets you 200MB, but that's not practical for most people, if at all) and even if you forgo a voice plan entirely, you only have to make 200 minutes of voice calls per month (20 cents per minute) to get to the same $80/month it costs to run a $99 iPhone 3G on AT&T with 450 rollover voice minutes and unlimited data, 100,000 apps, a full iPod, iTunes Store, Apple Store support, proven Apple hardware, and a much more advanced OS.
I know you can use Skype for calls when in Wi-Fi or 3G (I use Skype on my iPhone all the time for international calls) but when you're not in Wi-Fi or 3G it is pretty easy to use up 200 actual voice minutes per month for most people.
It's counter-intuitive because Apple is seen as a premium brand, but the iPhone is cheap. Out-cheaping the iPhone is really hard. I think Nexus One and Android are going to have to succeed or not based on people actually wanting to buy the phone, not based on it being cheaper. There is no room under the iPhone 3G for being “cheap and good enough”. The “good enough” shoppers that Microsoft usually specializes in are buying iPhone 3G, which all by itself (excluding 3GS) has higher market share than Android and Windows Mobile combined.
Posted by Hamranhansenhansen at December 30th, 2009 at 12:09 amIt would suit Motorola right to focus a bit on selling unlocked devices at $200 or less, which would also mean that Motorola and others could even design uber advanced models to sell unlocked at 400 to 500 dollars.
Going cheaper for cell phone manufacturers is a good thing, they will sell many more devices and many more people will get a taste for Internet powered mobile devices which will in general create a market for a billion or more new Internet powered devices.
The only people that may feel really threatened by Google's move would be the big carriers such as AT&T and Verizon, those guys are seeing their monopolistic market control disappear in front of their eyes.
Posted by Charbax at December 30th, 2009 at 5:10 pmThe iphone cheap? You must be joking. The iphone is $3700 with the 2-year contracts.
Google can provide unlimited free voice calls on the Nexus One for totally free. Since Net Neutrality forces cell carriers to provide bandwidth for VOIP calls on 3G and not try to block it. 100MB of bandwidth is enough for 11 hours of VOIP calling or much more than that, and costs $1 or less to buy in bulk for Google or anyone else.
Carriers can try to block it, they won't be able to. If they do, Google can setup White Spaces network in the matter of months using FON.com model and provide totally free broadband data for calls or anything else for free.
In many countries you can buy a data SIM card for $10 to $20 per month and not have to sign any contracts, it's just prepaid for 10GB or 20GB data usage per month on 3G networks. That is the market in Europe and many other places in the world, Google can push Google Nexus One for that kind of usage. Just buy 1GB or more 3G data prepaid sim cards each month and do however many Google Voice calls that you want.
Posted by Charbax at December 30th, 2009 at 5:17 pmI'm really excited and I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not. I just hope we're not let down. The Nexus One seems like a promising phone.
Posted by traxor at December 30th, 2009 at 5:42 pmIt seems like some decent competition! The iPhone is something that I'll always want but never get. The Nexus One and Android phones seem to be more accessible.
Posted by traxor at December 30th, 2009 at 5:43 pmI still want an iphone.
Posted by international call at May 1st, 2010 at 7:33 amThe Nexus One is a smartphone from Google that uses the Android open source mobile operating system.The device is manufactured by Taiwan's HTC Corporation, and became available on January 5, 2010. Features of the phone include the ability to transcribe voice to text, noise canceling dual microphones,and GPS guided turn-by-turn voice directions to drivers. Yes Nexus one should have the same sort of…gadget gravitas to pull focus from CES because because Nexus one is really incredible like the information that i shared a while ago that you can locate at the top of this comment,
Posted by calling cards at May 6th, 2010 at 2:37 amGreat post, really help me a lot. Thanks.
Posted by changing station at August 29th, 2010 at 1:55 pm