Google Nexus Rumored To Cost $530 Or $180 w/Plan

wkurzius writes "The new Google phone, the Nexus One, is rumored to cost $530 unlocked and will work on any GSM network. A subsidized version is also available for $180 and will get you a T-Mobile Even More Individual 500 Plan for 2-years with a $350 termination fee. Access to the phone is supposed to be invite only at first, with January 5th being the supposed release date."

So

[jimbobborg]

Who got invited? Whoopi Goldberg? Or one of the celebs on the T-Mobile Android ads?

And $530 for an unlocked phone that will last about three years? Really?

A little more competition is a good thing

[DJRumpy]

I can only hope this brings down the cost of these phones. The prices are already greater than the cost of netbooks and bargain laptops/desktops. I realize that miniaturization is a factor, but we really need more strong competitors in this area. I would much prefer a non-subsidized phone except the price is a little daunting all in one lump sum.

Subsidy lock?

[alecto]

If someone buys the phone with the subsidy then subsequently leaves T-mo and pays the ETF, will T-mo unlock the phone? Also, is the ETF prorated? In any case, it seems that the combination of a cheap phone for voice and a netbook/laptop + WiFi or if ubiquitous access is necessary a data stick are a better deal for the money.

This is just FUD

[walruz]

I've seen this post on many other sites, all referencing to the gizmodo link, which is a mockup of the page which is supposed to be the actual page offering the phone. No confirmation, no real data, no journalism.. just plain old FUD.

Re:Invite only?

[CyberLord Seven]

Consider yourself fortunate that you are not on the invite list. Remember the dorks who bought the iPhone when it first came out? Remember those same dorks just a few months later when Apple dropped the price? :)

I suspect this invite only thing is just to drum up interest in the phone. Soon, everyone and his brother will be able to buy one just like Gmail.

whining about prices

[Ritz_Just_Ritz]

Like all the other smartphones in recent memory, they cost a fortune if you're an early adopter. If you don't want to get mugged then just wait a couple of months for the hoopla to die down. Your old phone won't stop working in the interim if you don't have the latest whizbang handset the day after its release.

Re:Invite only?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

And/or a marketing gimmick to map who knows who...

prices?

[Lord Ender]

Finally, an unlocked smartphone! But what is the cheapest voice+data plan you could use it with? Will it be possible to use it with a pre-pay carrier, like Virgin Mobile?

I don't talk much, and I'm rarely far from a real computer, but I would love to have the ability to get on the web from a smartphone available to me.

Smart move

[copponex]

Good move from a marketing standpoint. They pick out users who are more likely to be technologically savvy, and those users won't flood the internet with complaints like "TEH PHONE DOSNT WORK W/ITUNES... WOULD NOT BY AGAIN"

By the time it launches widely, there will be some very interesting projects they can show off. I'm waiting to see what if there will be an SDK and what kind of access users will have to the phone. Hopefully it will be wide open.

Re:CDMA?

[Anonymous Coward]

It actually might be a 'world phone' with both GSM and CDMA capability. http://www.dancewithshadows.com/tech/google-nexus-one-phone-set-for-january-2010-launch/

Very disappointing

[ekool]

There are a lot of disappointed people over @ nexusoneforum.net with regards to the pricing. It sounds to me like Google lost alot of good will with such a high unsubsidized price.
 
Discussion here: Nexus One Pricing Discussion [nexusoneforum.net]

Re:So

[bberens]

I've ranted about this plenty of times on slashdot. There is no such program in the US. You can buy a "pay as you go" phone but the cost/minute is generally higher than the contract plans. Bringing your own phone to the deal only grants you the freedom to not sign a contract for a *normal* monthly plan. There is no discount whatsoever.

Re:A little more competition is a good thing

[Seor Jojoba]

Just buy it with a credit card. And pay the debt off at $20/month or whatever is convenient. You'll be better off in the long run, because we'll get the carriers to start competing as big dumb pipes. The emphasis will be on coverage/speed for the buck, instead of some wacky chase after the latest "It" phone. We should all stop being scared off by upfront costs and letting phone carriers handle our financing through subsidies.

Re:prices?

[Seor Jojoba]

The funny thing is that T-Mobile offers a pretty decent plan with 3G data for $50/month which would be my first choice. But if you buy the subsidized phone, you get the spendy $80/month plan which doesn't really have good value to warrant the extra cost, IMO. Difference seems to be just more minutes and unlimited SMSs. So I could see buying the unsubsidized phone, and just getting the cheaper T-Mobile data plan separately.

Also, T-Mobile is one of the major carriers that refused to turn over customer information to US officials without a warrant. And they got KZJ, who is much sexier than the "Can You Hear Me Now" guy.

Re:Invite only?

[MBGMorden]

You clearly haven't been hanging out with the same people I have. It seems that every person between 14 and 30 is caught up in phones - what theirs can do, what yours can't, and new/shiny. Hell from what I've seen in the last 3 years or so teenage and early 20's girls get as geeky over their phones as geeks do over their computers.

A friend of my sisters was out with us a while back - overall a pretty superficial girl. Not bright about most things, and works in one of those trendy shops where they sell bath oils and the like. Somebody said something about their phone and my God she took off. Whipping out her phone showing what it could do - and not just "OMG it can do interwebs!" talk. Discussing various input methods, which phones did what better and how, connectivity, the works. It would be what you would expect if some clueless noob said something in passing about the GPL around a Linux geek - just about phones. She has been the most extreme of this I found, but certainly not the only one. The nation as a whole (well, the younger crowd anyways) is in love with the smartphone right now.

Re:Invite only?

[MBGMorden]

Bingo. You responded almost exactly as I was going to.

Its like cars. In the late 1800's/early 1900's having a car by itself was a status symbol. Then everybody got them. HOWEVER, 100 years later with millions of cars on the road rich guys still like to flaunt their Porsche's, Maserati's and Aston Martin's, and you'd be crazy to think that those cars aren't status symbols, even if they ARE quite a bit more capable than your average Kia.

Today, everyone has a phone, but individual models certainly are status symbols.

Re:No keyboard = do not want

[Nadaka]

hell yes, and I want a hand crank and one of those cups on a wire to put up to my ear. I don't think I understand, can I get a horse and buggy analogy?

Re:Nokia N900

[InlawBiker]

The N900 is $469 at Buy.com right now with a rebate. I think the N900 is a superior device to just about everything out there right now, but the key deciding factor will be which OS has more support. For the plain old consumer market Android is going to appeal to more people.

Re:Invite only?

[Red Flayer]

That's a very interesting point I hadn't considered until now.

The invite system may be yet another way that Google collects information useful to them in selling advertising, etc... they can identify "power brokers" in tech marketing, which would be valuable information to advertisers (and to their internal marketing).

Yech.

Re:So

[Undead Waffle]

Last I heard all of the US carriers were requiring the data plan if you had a smart phone. Any word on whether the "Even More Plus" plan does this? Again, last time I looked into it AT&T would detect the smart phone on their network regardless of whether it was bought separately and add the $30/month data plan to your bill for you. Any carrier that lets me bring my own smart phone without requiring me to pay $30 for an internet connection I'll barely ever use has a good chance of getting my business next time my contract expires.

Re:CDMA?

[iron-kurton]

True, but from my understanding there are only four bands that cover the majority of the world. So, if the phones are quad-band GSM phones (which is the most likely scenario), you will still have greater potential market than just with a CDMA phone. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad-band [wikipedia.org]). This also means you don't have to fiddle with the onboard radio either.

Re:Very disappointing

[shutdown -p now]

Access to applications. For the same price you get access to 5x more apps on Apple

How many of those are actually "IAmRich" lookalikes? It has been pointed out many times that iPhone application count is grossly overstated because of things like RSS reader applications dedicated to reading one particular feed (with hardcoded URL), each reader counting as a separate app...

Re:Very disappointing

[Anonymous Coward]

I am confused, how is $500 so expensive? Anyone with a real job can certainly buy it if they want. Also, the iPhone 3GS is *NOT* $199. If you are comparing the cost of the phones, you have to use the *unsubsidized* cost of the iPhone too.