The long-awaited announcement from Google was released today for the Android-based Nexus One smartphone (the first in a series of products to be released by Google) or what Google refers to as an emerging class of “superphones.” The phone is initially selling through Google’s web store at a subsidized price of $179 with T-Mobile service, or for $529 unlocked.
Before we talk about what the Nexus One Does represent to the mobile and embedded community, let’s talk about what it Does Not.
Nexus One Does Not:
- Represent the long-anticipate “iPhone killer”. With a feature set that is unarguable nice but by no means earth-shattering, the Nexus One represents just another potential substitute for Apple’s offering and, if nothing else, provides further validation of the achievements Apple’s iPhone made when it was first introduced into the market.
- Force feed users advertising as a means to further subsidize cost.
- Fundamentally alter mobile phone purchasing behavior – How many of you people are actually willing to buy the phone for $529? My guess is that a lot of consumers will wait until it comes out at subsidized prices with other carriers in the spring.
What Nexus One Does:
- Provide further proof of the potential success and subsequent proliferation of an embedded Linux derivation (Android) within consumer facing applications.
- Represent another example of software functionality and brand promoted to the forefront of product marketing and consumer decision making.
- Raise (yet another) red flag in
- With Windows Mobile (phone?) already in a tailspin, Microsoft is watching its biggest mobile supporter, HTC, come to market with another new Android device.
- Should Microsoft look to take another step away from its high per unit royalties in mobile? If so, what type of pricing pressure could that subsequently cause in the rest of the device classes in which it competes.
- Perhaps drive the once unassailable leader in the smartphone OS market, Symbian, further behind in this rapidly evolving market.
- In its current state, Symbian Foundation just does not appear to have the resources available to effectively market Symbian OS and attract third-party application developers – let alone play catch-up within the
- Place further emphasis on software and tools vendors’ ability to offer OEMs premium development tools and experienced professional service organizations that can allow OEMs to quickly adapt their legacy software to new platforms and get their product to market as quickly as possible.
Stayed tuned as VDC looks to comment further on this announcement and other Mobile Operating System market trends here in our blog and in our upcoming report, Volume 3: Mobile Operating Systems from our 2010 Embedded Software and Tools Market Intelligence Service.
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