A Nexus Point
Written by Alex Kidman Friday, 08 January 2010 02:51
The big hype this week leading into the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has been focused around something that Google long held it would never do. That is, release its "own" phone based on the Google Android platform. The Google Nexus One is that critter exactly, now on sale from Google's web site for the low, low price of only $US529!
Except that, well, you know, it isn't. Not if you aren't in the US, Britain, Singapore or Hong Kong, at least at launch time. No Australian release dates have been announced for the Nexus One, beyond the fact that we're not getting it at launch. It is available in the US partnered initially with T-Mobile (and can be bought either with a T-Mobile contract or unlocked so you can take it to the carrier of your choice). Whether we'd get a purely unlocked model, or a carrier-specific model or even both isn't clear.
Naturally enough, if you're really keen, you could try to buy one over eBay and hope against hope that you don't end up being sent a brick wrapped in somebody else's laughter. It might even work locally. (The phone that is, not the brick, as bricks don't typically come with any kind of carrier locking beyond the mortar that holds them to other bricks.)
I also find it interesting how heavily the reporting has relied on calling it a "Google" phone. It's not. Google is selling it, to be sure, and the Android platform is Google's, but it's a bit like saying that the iMac that you could buy at JB HiFi was a "JB HiFi Mac". HTC is the mob building the Nexus One. It's an HTC phone, like the Magic, Dream, Tattoo and Hero Android phones. Yes, it's got a slightly-improved build of the Android platform, but that build could be made available (hardware permitting) to any smartphone vendor.
As an aside, HTC's got a lot of Android phones — or, more accurately, a lot of phones full stop. HTC likes making phones — that's clear enough — but it also likes hedging its bets, which is why one week it'll talk up Android, and the next week Windows Mobile 6.5. Then back and forth and back and forth, making its own branded phones as well as models like the Nexus One (over 80 percent of all the phones running Windows Mobile are manufactured by HTC, whether they are HTC-branded or not). You can bet that if for whatever reason Apple decided to license out iPhone OS, HTC would have a model on store shelves even before representatives from Apple had finished refusing to comment on plans they hadn’t yet announced.
Still, the presses — both online and physical — have worked hard this week with the inevitable lines being drawn between Apple and Google. The Nexus One is "a direct challenge" to Apple, or "the first serious threat" to the iPhone. Does that mean that all the other competing phones, such as the HTC Hero or Motorola Droid/Milestone were in some way flippant?
I've even seen the dreaded "iPhone killer" tag being bandied about. Stop it. I've never liked the "killer" tag, simply because it's inaccurate. None of these devices stop iPhones being iPhones, so why are they "killer"? It's because it's an emotive term, but it's a poor descriptor. While I'm at it, the term "Superphone" being applied to the Nexus One is equally silly. There aren't even enough phone booths left around for it to get changed into its costume for a start, and as it's a phone itself, it's only making that problem worse!
Still, even if the Nexus One doesn't have a local release date yet — heck, even if it never gets a local release date — it's still good news for Apple customers. And that's simply down to innovation and competition. The Nexus One pushes the tech boundaries that little bit further. Higher resolution camera, with flash, than the iPhone. Much faster processor. A big flashy launch designed to get everyone's attention — which it certainly did. And while Apple has shown it's entirely capable of living in its own bubble and working to its own timeline, there's no way that competing products in the same space, such as the Nexus One/iPhone 3GS comparison, go unnoticed by the design and technology bods at Apple.
[Not to mention marketing — MJCP]
The Nexus One might never sell in Australia, and it might never sell huge numbers beyond the geek crowd. But as Apple showed with the iPhone, what the mobile market needs is innovation to push the market as a whole along. I don't think it's unfair to say that the 3GS wasn't exactly a revelation in the mobile phone space; much more a gentle meandering along from the iPhone 3G itself. Left to its own devices, I'm confident that Apple would happily sell minor variations on that model for many years to come, just as every other mobile vendor did in the years before the iPhone reshaped matters. Needless to say, I don't want that. I want the next iPhone to be really good, not just "now available in shades of pink" different to the previous model.
Just as Apple's innovations with the iPhone have been endlessly copied, and indeed improved upon in some cases, Apple can draw inspiration from the common pool of ideas to make the next iPhone truly special.
