Google’s own-brand phone edging closer
Google has moved into the testing stage for its own-brand mobile phone. According to reports, staff have been using the device, said to be named Nexus One, in a bid to be ready for the first half of 2010. Google’s Android operation system arrived in January 2008 and has to date been available on nine handsets from various manufacturers. This is the first clear move from the internet giant to directly challenge the likes of Apple’s iPhone.
Taiwanese manufacturer HTC is believed to have built the handset, designed to maximise the efficiency of the Android operating system. Although there was no official word from Google, staff have been writing on blogs and Twitter. VP of product management for the company, Mario Queiroz stated in a blog that the device was now being tested.
“We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe,” said Queiroz.
Whether or not the handset will be good enough to make any kind of dent in the iPhone’s popularity remains to be seen, although it is thought the consumer may win either way. In order to have any chance in the market it is thought the Nexus One will have to be heavily subsidised; bringing the price down closer to the iPhone, whose own extended distribution deals mean greater competition in the marketplace. (In the US the exclusive iPhone deal with AT&T expires in June 2010). However US Analysts have doubts that Google can move into businesses that require support for hardware.
Broadpoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter isn’t expecting a traditional smartphone. “It will be a mobile device that challenges today’s business models, notions of data versus voice, and how consumers should pay for mobile services,” he writes in a research note published on Monday. But there are four risks Schachter brings to light: margin pressure, competition with its Android partners, possible failure, and losing focus.
Elsewhere further analyst notes point to the benefits that mobile search advertising could bring to the average price per click.
Reports from MediaTel Group’s recent Future of Mobile Seminar are available here.