back to article Chocolate Factory eats crow on Googlephone

When Google uncloaked the Nexus One and started selling the self-styled "superphone" through its own online store, the company insisted it wasn't competing with Verizon Wireless, Motorola, and all those other those partners selling all those other Android phones. But it appears that these Android partners have since convinced …

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  1. James Billingham
    Linux

    Desire is better

    I suppose this is the problem with not being an Apple with a closed system - they cannot use their clout to stop competitors producing a better product. I would have bought the Nexus... If not for the Desire being the better phone, and they are both made by HTC so you wonder how much HTC used their knowledge of the Nexus to blow it away.

    1. T-Unit
      Grenade

      Got root?

      Cos my Nexus has :)

    2. Stefing
      Grenade

      Desire versus Nexus One

      The Desire has more memory and the Sense UI, the Nexus One is slimmer and has noise cancellation - there's no clear winner, personally I really dislike the Sense UI but it seems lots of reviewers seem to like it.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Nexus One rulz

      I bought a Nexus One because (a) it's everything the iPhone is not and (b) it's unlocked. I am simply not prepared to get locked into a long (3yrs for an iPhone here) contract. I am not on a contract and do change the content of my monthly plan from time to time. I can also use local SIM cards if I travel overseas. Google is not a great retailer, but the HTC Nexus One works very well and meets my needs.

      1. Law
        Linux

        root and "unlocked"

        RE: Got Root?: I'm sure root is coming to Desire if it's not already done... I have root on my hero.

        RE: Unlocked - what. are. you. talking. about. willis? You do realise you can buy the Desire sim-free, and it works in exactly the same way as the Nexus in terms of pop in a sim, not locked into a contract, etc etc... the only difference is when you buy with a contract, which incidentely, the nexus one sucks for - because if you bought a desire with a contract, then left early, you only pay the operator to leave, if you buy a nexus one with tmobile/etc you have to pay twice to leave, once with the operator, then once with google.

        I have absolutely nothing against the Nexus mind you, I actually wanted one but assumed they'd be dropping the price by now so waited... but they never did, and now the Evo and Desire are here, I'm quite happy moving to one of them instead, I just wish that I could get the Nexus lock screen on a Sense UI device... the htc one is far too easy to get accidentally unlock by my son.

  2. ceedee
    Thumb Down

    Vodafone won't sell the Nexus One

    It's all lies!

    Vodafone aren't interested in "selling" the Nexus One, only an 18- or 24-month contract which is, in effect, a rental agreement.

    Totally different to Google's initial concept.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Are you saying...

      ...that at the end of the contract, the phone doesn't belong to the subscriber?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        actually...

        I think you'll find that by the START of the contract the phone belongs to the subscriber. It's a freebie when you agree to rent a line off them,

  3. Daniel Owen
    FAIL

    Desire

    Google would be selling it to anyone who would have it, if it was not for the fact that the nexus is having it's ass hand to it by the HTC Desire!

    Kinda what the Nexus did to the Droid, so what goes around comes around really.

    Can't really see the Nexus doing too well on Vodafone because of the Desire, that's probably going to be cheaper.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Do no evil...

    Whilst people are looking

    We come in peace - shoot to kill.

  5. Steve Adams
    Alert

    (Lack of) Support!?

    I am (would be) a great prospect for buying a phone directly from Google... however I don't believe they have a credible customer service operation (would love to have my assumptions reset more positively!).

    The article states:

    "Mountain View is woefully unprepared to deal with support after the phone is sold"

    Whilst my experience of dealing with various (UK) mobile carriers is limited and not entirely wonderful... they do offer customer support and do fix problems - send out replacement phones.

    Question: What happens if I buy a phone from Google and it stops working?

    Do they offer a customer support service which will help me?

    Anyone have any experience of this?

    S.

    1. T-Unit

      HTC cover it

      Repairs (inc warranty) are covered by HTC who have repair centres in the UK, one of which I know is one in Milton Keynes

      1. Steve Adams

        yes....but..

        Thanks T-Unit,

        I'm sure that they officially take care of things... I'm mostly interested to know if Google have a useful and responsive customer service operation (here in the UK).

        Steve.

  6. Seanie Ryan
    Headmaster

    look more closelier

    "we’ll be able to get more Nexus One phones to more people more quickly."

    so that would be "faster" then ?

  7. Miek
    Linux

    Desire for me too

    I too was interested in the Nexus One, but having to purchase this phone from America was the issue for me. Import tax and postage for the nexus one brought the price to roughly £100 more than the desire.

    The desire is a fantastic phone, I am well pleased with it.

    1. Stefing

      Tax

      I paid NONE. Nexus One, under £400, thank you very much!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Thumb Up

        thanks for the tip off

        Stefing,

        Thanks for the tip off, we will be in touch shortly.

        Your friendly local revenue service

  8. Gizzit101
    Terminator

    meh.

    Say what you like, the Nexus One is a decent smartphone, with a lot to recommend it.

    I bought one primarily because it seemed that manufacturers and carriers were "dragging their heels" in delivering Android updates. Don't get me wrong, Android 1.6 and even 1.5 are very good, but I don't see why consumers should be locked into them, simply because of the Motoblur and Sense etc., addons.

    Seems to me that the carriers and manufacturers would prefer that the o/s is static for the lifetime of the phone, sparing them the expense of recustomising and rolling out updates. What the Nexus One promised, it delivers: a well-designed and built handset, running "vanilla" Android - it does everything I need it to do, and it represents (to me) value for money.

    I don't need the glitz and empty glamour of a customised UI, I'd sooner have a handset that can receive updates in a timely fashion, but each to their own.

    I'll keep using the Nexus One until the hardware cannot cope with the latest iteration of Android, using whichever sim-only deal represents best value at the time. When it finally dies or becomes truly redundant, I'll buy the best available sim-free Android phone that gets its updates direct from Google, always assuming that Motorola, Verizon et. al. haven't finally destroyed the platform in a fit of greedy pique.

    1. Tim Cook

      Proper support

      You'll probably hate me for saying so, but that's exactly what I like about the iPhone - the OS is supported directly by the phone's manufacturer and gets updated directly, without any wait for the networks or any third party hardware maker to pull their finger out. When Apple release new features, or a security update, you just plug your iPhone into iTunes and voila - you're up to date.

      Yes it's a closed system but there are big advantages to that, to both the user and Apple, and I'm guessing it's that model that Google were aiming at with the Nexus One. Wasn't ever going to happen though, since they've created too much competition for themselves already.

      1. Gizzit101
        Terminator

        Nope...

        I don't hate you for it...you've got something that works for you, and I've got something that works for me.

        I've never seen the point of all the antagonism between people who swear by the iPhone, and those who favour Palm, or Android, or Symbian. Buy what you want to buy, use whichever you prefer. Yes, I'm a confirmed Android diehard fanboi, but I'm not going to rubbish devotees of other products.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    nexus vs desire

    i really like my nexus, the soft buttons havn't been a problem at all, the trackball thingy rarely gets used, i think that might be one thing that is better one the desire, it's some sort of optical tracker isn't it? the ball works just fine though. and it blinks when you have a message, call or email or whatever, so there's not much in it there.

    but the nexus has docking connectors, which i do not think the desire has, and tips the balance in favour of the nexus for me.

    the differences are buttons, trackball, dock and gui, otherwise they're identical from what i have read.

    1. Jerome 0

      Virtually identical

      Don't forget the noise cancelling mic, present on the N1 but not on the Desire, although I've read mixed reports of its usefulness. I was a bit concerned by all the demo videos with people repeatedly stabbing at the N1's soft-buttons to get them to work, so I'm glad to hear that they're okay. But yeah, there's hardly anything between the two devices hardware-wise. Then there's the software - where the Desire has the Sense UI, the N1 has the promise of more timely Android upgrades.

      I've got a Desire myself, but I would have been quite happy with either. I chose between them solely based on the price. It's amusing to read people say the Desire is kicking the N1's ass when we're talking about two essentially identical devices.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        exchange sync

        the main thing the desire has that the nexus doesn't, as far as i know, is exchange calendar syncing. there is an approach available via google calendar but it turns out even that is dependant on your version of outlook, and the patch level on your machine, in my case i can't run google's calendar sync app because our patching's so out of date, so fresh out of luck there.

        it's all the more annoying because the desire has a built in sync thing that does mail, contacts, and calendar all in one, whereas the nexus version for reasons unknown fails to do the calendar.

        as to the noise cancelling mic, i'm not sure how you'd ever tell it was working, seems like it should be a good thing though i suppose.

  10. Stefing
    FAIL

    So, to sum up

    Google said they'd release the Nexus One online and then through providers - which is what they've done.

  11. An nonymous Cowerd
    Troll

    N1 is a fine phone

    Living in Italy, I had to order it from Goooogle via the UK. cost around €440 eventually compared to grey imports into Italy around €700! everything more or less works, some finger-itis occurs (triggering the next icon 'stead of the desired one) - some marketplace free apps are starting to give my Gphone a big doubleclick footprint, openDNS has sorted that. The alarm never worked - until I bought yesterday the Google bluetooth Alarm-Dock, today it rang for the first time in a month - then wouldn't stop - I had to make hard reset to stop the beeping. My wife's nice iPhone is boring in its placid functionality - I value the Nexus flexibility - but it's not worth over 400 quid.

  12. Falafel
    Dead Vulture

    The have achieved what they were after..

    The market is diluted, carriers/manufacturers are now innovating using Android.

  13. JB
    Unhappy

    American carriers

    If American carriers offered better phones, they wouldn't have to cap on like this. Even the cheap and cheerful phones in the UK are better. I'd have a Desire tomorrow if I could afford it, and it were actually available in the US.

  14. gimbal
    WTF?

    "Ecosystem" what?

    They do know that they're talking about mobile phone business, right? Or is it just a matter of their clever ploy to make it appear as if they don't understand the nuts and bolts of the industry... They might be the first, after all, if they did.

  15. mhenriday
    Stop

    Another farce that has reached its sell-by date, Cade,

    are continual references to Google as the «(Mountain View) Chocolate Factory». It may have been mildy amusing the first time around, but you would be advised to accept the fact that its appeal paled long ago....

    Henri

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