back to article Google Nexus One 'too popular' in dev phone afterlife

Google's Nexus One phone was a flop as a sold-direct-to-consumer "superphone," but according to the company, it's a huge hit in its new incarnation as a developer platform. With a blog post Friday morning, Google Android man Tim Bray announced that the Nexus One developer phone has already sold out and that the company is …

COMMENTS

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  1. Thomas 18
    Go

    limit supply to boost demand

    Hey, they are learning from Apple!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      limit supply?

      Hardly, it is discontinued.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      Not really..

      Apple make developers buy two phones, then pay for their own software in the one they actually use.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    So how do I register to become a developer?

    So how do I register to become a developer?

    I used to program in Fortran and Cobol. Does that Android?

    Oh wait - maybe I haven't quite gotten this youngsta 'hip' talk yet.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wanted one

    Pity Google were too retarded to sell me me one..... All I wanted to do was either go into a shop and buy one without contract bull or buy one on-line from a UK site......

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      title

      Were Google too retarded to sell you one? Or were you too retarded to buy one?

      Reference:

      1. http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=193939

      2. http://www.play.com/Mobiles/Mobile/4-/13346350/HTC-Google-Nexus-One-Android-Sim-Free-Unlocked-5-Megapixel-Touch-Screen-Mobile-Phone/Product.html

      1. DrXym

        AC maybe you weren't paying attention

        When Google was selling the Nexus One retail, it restricted sales to certain countries. Furthermore, the sites you menu were charging ABSURD markups on Google's price. I recall Expansys expecting people to pay ~700 euros for the device.

        So unless you were lucky enough to live in the few blessed countries, or stupid enough to pay a ridiculous markup, you couldn't get one of these phones.

        It's nice to see they have a life after death but I expect it would be cheaper and as productive to buy an HTC Desire these days.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Paris Hilton

          You don't quite get...

          the "subsidy" part of a phone locked to a contract, do you?

    2. david bates

      I wanted one as well...

      I hadno problems buying one from Google. Ir arrived, engraved, lewss than a week after I had ordered it. This was during the Volcano Dust Cloud business, so I still dont know how they managed it.

  4. John Tserkezis

    Shock horror.

    Phone sells better in unlocked state, rather than forcing users on costly contract.

    Who would have thought?

    1. Stephen 10

      re shock horror

      Except you could always buy it unlocked - I bought one from the Google site (used a US based clearing company to send it here to Australia) and I love it. It also will probably be the first phone to get Android 3.0 and completely free of telco 'enhancements'... Huge plus that

  5. rahul
    Go

    "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated..."

    ... I don't believe Google has killed off the Nexus One yet; I suspect they are just marking time.

    The Nexus One is, in my eyes, everything a smartphone should be: Unlocked, open, and not subject to Provider (Vodafone) / Manufacturer (Samsung) whims.

    Where's the halo-ed schmidt logo?

  6. kurkosdr

    Not surprised

    Apparently people woke up and realized that the Nexus is the only Android phone that's running "Vanilla Android", aka the original version of Android by Google .

    All the others are running "custom" versions, possibly with proprietary software inside or other third party modifications. Which means that you can't just fetch the source from the android source archive and expect it to work on your phone.

    So, when it comes to getting the next version, it's all up to the manufacturer (and it's eagerness to sell new devices, I am looking at you HTC with the Hero) or to weekend hackers like Cyanogen.

    Some months ago, when Google announced they were killing the Nexus, it always seemed a bit odd to me. Android 2.2 had just been rolled out, and the Nexus was the only freaking phone that run 2.2!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      #Not Surprised

      >Some months ago, when Google announced they were killing the Nexus

      They didn't, they just switched their focus to developers rather than whiney consumers who needed too much hand holding - its the reference platform for Android development until and well into 3.0.

  7. Ebeneser
    Thumb Up

    Nice Phone

    I got my nexus one delivered in the UK in January, 5 days after it came out. I didn't have any problems getting it, I needed one for development, I got one, period.

    Its a nice phone. Its main developer benefit is it gets the lastest versions of Android first, and its not encumbered with proprietary UIs.

  8. Gulfie
    Thumb Up

    Nice little phone...

    I imported one from Google and then found I could get a second for free when I moved from o2 to Voda. So I did just that, now I have my everyday phone and my dev phone. BTW Vodafone sell the Nexus One as it came from Google; unlocked and unbranded so it now runs froyo and supports tethering - which is not explicitly banned in my contract which also has no data limit...

  9. George of the Jungle
    Happy

    Good thing I ordered when I did

    I wanted to get a Nexus One for development. Of course the day I finally get around to it was the day they took their retail market down. When they announced that they would sell them to developers, I haunted the dev site until they went on sale, and bought immediately.

    It's nice to use an unadulterated Froyo phone for development. The extra benefit is that I can retire my unlocked Palm Treo 680 for my trips to Europe and use the N1.

  10. drag

    Get samsung galaxy-s if you cannot get Nexus One.

    If you can't get your hands on a Nexus One the next most 'open' phone your going to find for Android is going to be from the Samsung Galaxy-S family of phones.

    Samsung has been much better then other manufacturers when it comes to open sourcing their stuff and, unintentionally or not, made their phones much easier for people to hack on then any other platform out there.

    Not to mention that the performance for these phones is better then any other phone out there, except for some I/O for the onboard flash (which can be fixed).

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    could people stop saying it was "killed off"/"discontinued"/etc

    that's just plain wrong. the only thing that was killed off is Google's own store. the phone never went out of production and has remained available through networks and various retailers.

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