Google Nexus One headed to Sprint
Sprint nowadays proclaimed they will be a carrier of the Google Nexus One smartphone. T-Mobile was initially the only carrier to offer an “official” term plan for the Nexus phone at $179 in a two year contract. Sprint won’t be the only company to carry the Nexus One, yesterday’s announcement told us about Google’s plan to send the phone to AT&T and Rogers Wireless in Canada and an expected addition by Verizon Wireless on March 23rd, but with sales slumping there’s not much of worry on shortages in supply.
The controversy over Google hindering its own auctions by rival directly with their partners is tosh. If the only handset Google is vending is an unlocked version at the normally exorbitant price of $529, than the only rivalry would be to the carriers vending unlocked phones.
Ask your local cellular carrier how many unlocked phones they vend and you will get a good idea about how “competitive” Google is with their cohorts. Google’s approach almost seems to be a retrograde marketing tactic, unleash the Nexus One, but only to initial adopters who will pay out for an unlocked phone, after sales slowdown send it off to carriers to bundle and plan as they see fit. Not bad Google, not bad at all.
