It’s a nice phone. OK, it’s a very nice phone.
But nothing about the new Nexus One smartphone from Google Inc. comes close to warranting the mass hysteria that attended its unveiling last week.
The Nexus One isn’t revolutionary. Nor is it an iPhone killer — a phrase we should banish to the Tech Writers’ Hall of Cliches. It is, instead, a sleek phone with some advancements in display and processor technology that will surely be matched and then overtaken by others in the months ahead.
True, the rapidly evolving competition among Google, Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Research in Motion Ltd. is fascinating to watch. And Google’s plunge into e-tailing — the Nexus One can only be bought directly from the company over the Web — has the potential to shake up how phones are sold.
Me, though, I find it hard to swoon over a business model.
The Nexus One, manufactured by Taiwan’s HTC Corp. to Google’s specifications, is similar in both size and shape to the iPhone — a smidge thinner and lighter, a trifle longer. It runs a new version of Google’s Android operating system that makes modest tweaks to the software that debuted on Motorola Inc.’s Droid two months ago.

T-Mobile

At launch, there isn’t much of a choice: The only carrier currently offering a plan is T-Mobile USA, the U.S. mobile-phone division of Deutsche Telekom AG, which charges $79.99 per month. In theory, you can also use a SIM card from AT&T Inc., but the phone wouldn’t be able to use AT&T’s 3G network for data, only its older, slower Edge network. Outside the U.S., Google is shipping the unlocked Nexus One to the U.K., Hong Kong and Singapore.
The choices will multiply over time. This spring will see a Nexus One that runs on the Verizon Wireless network, which uses a different technology than AT&T and T-Mobile. Also in the spring, Vodafone Group Plc is lined up to offer a service plan for the Nexus One in Europe.
Google is responsible for delivering the phone — the one I ordered on launch day last week arrived in less than 48 hours — and will be the first point of contact if anything goes wrong.
Weakening the carriers’ control and compelling them to compete with each other may eventually put more power into consumers’ hands — and, of course, Google’s.
While all this is interesting, it’s hardly earth- shattering. When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, it changed the entire way people thought about wireless devices, ushering in the era of the mobile Web.
The Nexus One? It’s just a very nice phone.

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