“The move follows Google’s short-lived effort to market a handset called the Nexus One, which was released in January and discontinued in the summer,” Efrati reports. “The new model, the Nexus S, will be introduced in the U.S. in mid-December and sold exclusively at Best Buy Co. retail stores and on Best Buy’s website. It will cost $199 with a two-year T-Mobile USA contract, and be sold for $529 without a service contract.”
“Google licenses the Android software free to hardware makers such as Samsung. The company won’t make any money from direct sales of the Nexus S, a Google spokesman said,” Efrati reports. “Android is designed to ensure that Google’s Internet search, maps and other services will be a mainstay on mobile devices. The company sells ads alongside its Internet search results and helps place ads within mobile-device applications such as game. Two months ago Google executives said the company was on track to generate $1 billion annually in mobile-related revenue.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: In related news, Ford Motor Company unveiled the Edsel S.
The only smartphone news that will really matter in 2011 will be Apple iPhone’s arrival on Verizon and the massive impact it will have on all players in the cellphone market: handset assemblers, carriers, resellers, chipmakers, touchscreen makers… everyone.
They called it the Nexus S.. really?
The “S” is for slow.
Now we get to say things like, “The Nexsus S’s Android’s…” Noe how trippingly it rolleth off the tongue.
After Verizon starts offering the iPhone, who does Google and Nexus think will be developing software for this orphaned phone? This is getting sad. Very sad. Reminds me of a fish flopping around in a mud puddle after the water is gone.
Right. Try saying:
Nexus S’s system settings
three times in a row, as fast as you can.
Excellent name, no question about it!
@MacMorsel
Actually the “S” stands for something I can’t write on this site.
Maybe the S stands for Sheeet? Err Sh*t!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
@stophobophobia:
MDN won’t stop you – one of their favorite words is s***astic.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
let me buy something that will get abandoned in a few months. don;t companies realize it looks terrible to do that?
at least with apple- they support their products for years and years after they have been phased out.
i’ll stick with the company that sticks with me thank you very much.
There seems to be this opinion among the readers here that when Verizon gets the iPhone, Android phones will slowly disappear from the market.
This is is fundamentally flawed. In markets where iPhone is available on multiple carriers, Android still exists, and is still growing. It may not be as large a market share as in those (such as the US) where iPhone is only on one single carrier, but nonetheless, Android is up there.
We need to stop deluding ourselves: Android looks and works very much like an iPhone, and there’s a reason for that: patent infringement. That issue is working its way through the court systems, but while it is, Android is NOT a crappy Blackberry, WIndows 6.5, or even WinMob 7. It is really VERY similar to the iPhone (for the reason stated above). And that is why it is so quickly gaining market share: not because people want the iPhone on another carrier, and if they can’t get it, they’ll get ANYTHING. It is because Android is really close enough for so many people. The difference between 100,000 and 300,000 apps is really moot. Most of the core UI (inertial scrolling, swiping, flicking, pinching) is ripped off from Apple, so people who are coming from a cheap Nokia flip phone are in awe and perfectly content with Android. The point is, the difference between Android and iOS is much, much smaller than that between Windows and Mac OS X. Until patent infringement lawsuit eventually (hopefully) chops off Android’s legs, it will continue to share the market space with Apple.
Let’s not forget that this iPhone on Verizon story has mushroomed way out of proportion, and all on the back of rumours.
So far, we heard NO confirmation that Apple was able to re-negotiate the initial 5-year exclusivity agreement with AT&T, which has been disclosed by USA Today in 2007, and then confirmed by Apple’s attorneys during Apple’s anti-trust battle in 2008.
It is more than likely that 2011 will come and go, and MDN will still be announcing iPhone on Verizon once a day.
As someone (I forget who) frequently says:
Verizon. Getting iPhone any day now since 2007.
In even further related stories: Google is releasing a multi-speaker phone called the Steroid, a leg-holster phone called the ThighRoid, a half-size phone called the HemiRoid.
Gruber likes it.
Very well put. I don’t see how a Q1 release for a verizon iPhone makes sense anyway. It goes against apple yearly update plans also. It would spite APPLE customers that not even half a year goes by and boom a new iPhone is out. Look at the reaction when they just lowered the price on the original.
Rumors is what these analyst are running on. They seem to sometimes get product right but never the timing and hardly the correct details. Don’t use the lte argument because it’s not ready for prime time and there are some intangibles with Verizon’s LTE system. I have slowed my MDN views quite a bit because of their over desire to mention Verizon iPhone any chance they get. It was stated many times by them and have yet tobe right.
As far as the nexus “s” it’s just another one trick pony that google will give first dibs on new software upgrades. Other than that nothing really special because it will be apple that makes NFC popular with their ecosystem.
I also agree with ya Predrag.. I checked out the accompanying video of Walt Mossberg reviewing the Nexus S from the article. It’s a flat-out rip-off of the iPhone. Apple should sue both Samsung AND Google for this one. The could have changed the UI but didn’t. Average consumers will look at the two choices (iOS and Android) and not see much difference.
I DO think that once Apple is on Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint, though, that Apple has a better chance at cashing in on their intellectual property as Google and Samsung already has. It will level the playing field which is much needed in the states.
Apple, their photocopiers were ready.
Google’s phones are terrible and are crap.
Okay, it is a rip-off. Blatant and shameless in every way.
They stole the smartphone concept with Android.
Like everyone else, the shape of the iPhone.
iPhone 3G S, Nexus S
The small little things that makes the iPhone OS special. Yep, stolen.
Look at the videos! Same Apple like demonstrations and use of speech.
Pathetic!
Isn’t the Nexus a place frozen in time?
OMG have you seen the shape of it? Its S shaped! Why does everyone except Apple make super fugly POS devices?
Google = New Microsoft
So it’s basically a Samsung Android phone. I thought we already had those on multiple carriers. What’s the big deal…?
Actually, this is a big deal, because Google is once again using its brand power to compete against its own so-called “partners” (except Samsung in this case). But then again, those so-called “partners” are using Android for free, so they really can’t complain too much.
Android phones are made by companies that are lazy and cheap, and care so little about customer experience that they leave something as critical as the operating system (and other key software) to a third party. And Google makes no direct money from Android, so they care more about satisfying the advertisers, not users. Google’s REAL “customers” are the advertisers, not the users; the users are Google’s “commodity.”
S because of the S line of Samsung items.
big G provide this device as it is unlocked and fully upgradable, this assure to developers a developing and testing platform…nothing more…
It’s sure that Android it’s like a tzunami and will be a problem for Apple devices and generic Linux openesss world…
@ Jubei… No, Apple is the new M$!
@ Bill… Right on!
@ Predrag, You assume that Apple will win all of it’s patent lawsuits. Just because SJ stood on a staged and dared anyone to copy them saying “we intend to protect our IP” doesn’t mean they have the patent. Time will tell. In the meantime Android market share growth is clobbering iOS and adding a carrier or two isn’t going to stop it!
Monty pythons sketch ‘The dead parrot’ comes to mind on reading this article!