1. CHANNELS:
  2. NEXUS ONE
  4. RADAR
  5. whytheluckymobile

Nexus One

Two years earlier, Google had acquired the start-up that was developing Android. At the time, the move was largely aimed at Microsoft and meant to ensure that it didn’t wind up controlling the market for mobile devices. But when Microsoft faltered in the emerging smartphone market, and other companies like Research In Motion and then Apple began to dominate instead, Google continued to push ahead with Android and its vision of a more open mobile phone ecosystem…

Google did proceed cautiously with Android, at least initially. The first versions of the software, which appeared on devices in 2008, didn’t feature multitouch. The phones were slow and unwieldy, and Google insiders joked that they looked like bricks

But as Android-powered devices kept improving, Apple became more concerned. When Mr. Jobs returned to work from a prolonged health leave last year, he faced an array of emerging Android-powered phones like the Motorola Droid, with sleeker lines, improved performance and, like the other Android phones, the ability to run multiple applications at the same time.

Apple believes that devices like smartphones and tablets should have tightly controlled, proprietary standards and that customers should take advantage of services on those gadgets with applications downloaded from Apple’s own App Store.

Google, on the other hand, wants smartphones to have open, nonproprietary platforms so users can freely roam the Web for apps that work on many devices. Google has long feared that rivals like Microsoft or Apple or wireless carriers like Verizon could block access to its services on devices like smartphones, which could soon eclipse computers as the primary gateway to the Web. Google’s promotion of Android is, essentially, an effort to control its destiny in the mobile world.

The complete NYT article on the increasing rivalry between Apple and Google is well worth a read.

Android’s US market share more than doubled between October 2009 and January 2010 up from 2.8% to 7.1% according to yesterdays report from comScore. Whilst Google’s Android platform is still a relatively small player in the market it continues to enjoy the most rapid growth. RIM and Apple, who currently control around 60% of the US smartphone market saw slight increases with both Microsoft and Palm loosing ground over the same 3 month period. [Gizmodo]

Android’s US market share more than doubled between October 2009 and January 2010 up from 2.8% to 7.1% according to yesterdays report from comScore. Whilst Google’s Android platform is still a relatively small player in the market it continues to enjoy the most rapid growth. RIM and Apple, who currently control around 60% of the US smartphone market saw slight increases with both Microsoft and Palm loosing ground over the same 3 month period. [Gizmodo]

Comment

Five Short Links: 4th March 2010

  • Google is with Nexus One handsets. - Developers of Android Market applications with 3.5 stars or higher and at least 5000 downloads get a free handset from Google.

  • Google launches for Android.

  • An Android Success Story - An Independent Developer making $13 000 a month with an Android Market Application. Good to hear that it’s possible to make decent money on the Android platform.

  • Spare now available direct from Google.

  • Adobe demos Flash 10.1 for Android on the Nexus One.

Comment
“When companies start to imitate one another, it’s usually either an extreme case of flattery—or war. In the case of Google and Apple, it’s both.” On Jan. 5, Google did a very Apple-like thing. In a presentation at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif., the 11-year-old search behemoth unveiled Nexus One, a stylish touchscreen smartphone that runs on the company’s Android operating system, is sold through a Google-operated retail Web site, and greets the market with an advertising tagline (“Web meets phone”) as simple and optimistic as the one Apple used in 2007 to introduce its iPhone (“The Internet in your pocket”). On the same day, Apple did a very Google-like thing. Steve Jobs, the king of splashy product launches and in-house development, announced a strategic acquisition. For $275 million, Apple purchased Quattro Wireless, an upstart advertising company that excels at targeting ads to mobile-phone users based on their behavior. The in-depth article from BusinessWeek on Google and Apple’s increasing convergence spans four pages and can be found here.

“When companies start to imitate one another, it’s usually either an extreme case of flattery—or war. In the case of Google and Apple, it’s both.”

On Jan. 5, Google did a very Apple-like thing. In a presentation at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif., the 11-year-old search behemoth unveiled Nexus One, a stylish touchscreen smartphone that runs on the company’s Android operating system, is sold through a Google-operated retail Web site, and greets the market with an advertising tagline (“Web meets phone”) as simple and optimistic as the one Apple used in 2007 to introduce its iPhone (“The Internet in your pocket”).
On the same day, Apple did a very Google-like thing. Steve Jobs, the king of splashy product launches and in-house development, announced a strategic acquisition. For $275 million, Apple purchased Quattro Wireless, an upstart advertising company that excels at targeting ads to mobile-phone users based on their behavior.

The in-depth article from BusinessWeek on Google and Apple’s increasing convergence spans four pages and can be found here.

Comment

Google have announced their intention to increase support for game-development on the Android mobile platform. As a first step they will be presenting a number of Android sessions at the Game Developers Conference on March 9th and 10th in San Francisco. The sessions will aim to provide everything developers need to know about Android game development in Java or C++, with Android engineers being on-hand to answer any questions.

As an added incentive to get developers signed-up for the event Google, in partnership with the conference organisers, is offering complimentary handsets to attendees.

Google and GDC will also be providing complimentary Android phones to attendees who register for All Access or Tutorials and Summits passes by the Early Bird deadline of February 4, 2010. Qualified attendees will receive either a Nexus One or a Verizon Droid by Motorola, so they can quickly apply what they learn from the various Android sessions.

You can find out more details about the offer on the conference site. With seven out of the top ten most popular paid applications in the Android store being games, it could be worth a look for developers interested in the platform.

Joshua Topolsky questions Erick Tseng, Senior Product Manager of Android on multi-touch and Google’s mobile strategy. Parts one and two are over at Endadget.

Comment

Nexus Enterprise set to be the next iteration in Google’s smartphone line

It might sound like an unlikely mix-up of two sci-fi films but the Nexus Enterprise is rumoured to be the latest device in Google’s Nexus smartphone line. In an Andy Rubin, Google’s Vice President of Engineering mentioned such a device whilst talking about how customers will use the online phone store.

Read More

Comment
Following up on our Nexus Enterprise story we’ve come across a rendering which fits the rumoured description of the new enterprise class handset. It’s so far been referred to as the Motorola Shadow, but we’ve heard that this could also be the Nexus Enterprise. We’ve no way to confirm this at the moment, but if true this would mean that Google’s offering of Nexus handsets could be sourced from several manufacturers. Whilst this struck us as unlikely at first, it could on second thoughts help to appease manufacturers said to be upset at Google’s decision to get into the hardware game.

Following up on our Nexus Enterprise story we’ve come across a which fits the rumoured description of the new enterprise class handset. It’s so far been referred to as the Motorola Shadow, but we’ve heard that this could also be the Nexus Enterprise. We’ve no way to confirm this at the moment, but if true this would mean that Google’s offering of Nexus handsets could be sourced from several manufacturers. Whilst this struck us as unlikely at first, it could on second thoughts help to appease manufacturers said to be upset at Google’s decision to get into the hardware game.

Comment

Android 2.1 SDK release will allow developers to catch-up with the Nexus One

The Nexus One is the first handset in the history of the Android project which has been released running a newer version of the operating system than that available to developers. It must have been a nervous week for Android developers wondering if their applications will be compatible with the new handset, and there have been some reports of Nexus One users running into minor application incompatibilities.

Version 2.1 of the open-source Android Software Development kit has now been released into the wild and is available for download from the development site. Developers are sure to be updating their applications where necessary to ensure full compatibility with the latest Android release.

Comment

The Switch From iPhone To Android, And Why Your First Impression Is Wrong

A well balanced article from TechCrunch on the iPhone vs. Nexus One debate:

The Nexus One as should be expected, is drawing numerous comparisons to the iPhone — it seems you can’t find a related review, blog post, or tweet that isn’t gauging the device based on how it compares to Apple’s juggernaut. That’s as it should be. But for anyone considering making the jump to Android, you need to keep one thing in mind: many of these early adopters have been using their iPhones non-stop for years. And it takes days, if not weeks, to unlearn your iPhone habits and judge Android on its own merits….

Jason also brings-up how well the Nexus One does Google integration. As Andy Rubin pointed out in his mobile platforms are becoming more about the software which runs on them than the hardware itself. The Nexus One vs iPhone debate is not only an issue of hardware, but of Android vs iPhone OS and how well the platform allows us to connect to the services that we like to use on a daily basis. Google power-users are clearly going to appreciate the Nexus One’s tighter integration with Google’s cloud offering than others.

Comment

With the , Google have brought to market a phone which already looks like the slickest Android device to be released to date. It’s likely to be the first in a series of Nexus devices from the search giant, designed to take advantage of the increasingly compelling Android mobile operating system. Whilst the phone itself was the headline announcement at the Mountain View , Google also gave some insight into how they plan to develop their online phone store, which they referred to as a ‘new way to purchase a consumer phone’. This may eventually turn out to be the bigger news from the event, as it’s clear that the Nexus One is just the beginning of what we’re going to see on their online phone store.

Breaking News from the press conference:

This is a rough ‘as it happens’ draft. We’ll be making more sense of all this in subsequent posts once the event is over.

Google is currently beginning its unveiling of the Nexus One

Google VP Mario Caros: The Nexus One is an exemplar of what’s possible with Android. It belongs in an emerging category of devices we call super-phones.

Peter Chou, CEO of HTC: A couple years ago we were unveiling the first Android products. Thie Nexus One is one of the best designed HTC phones we’ve ever had. The form-factor, aesthetic — it has a 3.7-inch AMOLED display and 1GHz Snapdragon.

Time for a closer look at the Nexus One and its software. Erick Tseng, senior product manager on the Android team. The specs! 3.7-inch OLED display, HVGA (480 x 800) — deep contrast. 1GHz Snapdragon (“It’s really fast.”). Trackball with multi-color notification LED.

Today is the big day for Google’s Mountain View press gathering which will start around 10am Pacific Time (6pm GMT). We’ll be doing our best to provide all the details as quickly as they come out both and via . Here’s the schedule for the event (Pacific Time):

  • 10:00 am – 11:00 am: Press Conference and Presentation
  • 11:00 am – 11:30 am: Q&A
  • 11:30 am – 1:00 pm: Demonstrations

Nexus One - Software

Like any other Android-based device, the Nexus One is expected to support Gmail, IMAP4, POP3, SMTP and Microsoft Exchange and it offers messaging options such as SMS, MMS, Email and Instant Messaging (IM) besides incorporating useful tools such as Document Viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and Organizer.

Thanks to Android platform, Nexus One will also probably be offering you a super speedy, intuitive UI and customisable home screens on which you can run live widgets.

The phone will reportedly also come pre-loaded with social networking applications such as Facebook, which means you never have to be out of touch with your friends and family.

Nexus One will reportedly also ship with preinstalled Google apps and services such as Gmail, Google Voice, Google talk, Google Calender, Google Maps and Google Search by Voice.

The Android platform also means you have access to the Android Market where you can download thousands of useful apps for free or a small cost.

Comment

What the Nexus One promises: speed

Examiner:

An upcoming Android device will be bringing the speed to the smartphone game. It is currently going by the name Nexus One and will supposedly be marketed by Google themselves, who are the creator of Android. Aside from the impressive 3.7-inch screen (compare to the iPhone’s 3.5-inch display) and a mature Android 2.1 operating system, the Nexus One is hiding something a little special under the hood: a 1 GHz mobile processor.

If you don’t know, 1 GHz is fast for a phone. Really fast. The iPhone 3GS has a 600 MHz CPU and the DROID clocks in at 530 MHz. So you can imagine how quick the Nexus One is. This device zips through the Android OS faster than any of its predecessors. And with a processor that powerful, our mobile gadgets will really start to rival desktop and notebook computers with capable applications.

Comment