In an effort to shake up the mobile phone market, Google has unveiled the Nexus One, the latest smart phone running the company's Android operating system. Yet questions about Google's larger goals remain, notably in the advertising world.
"The Nexus One belongs in an emerging category of device we call super phones," said Mario Queiroz, vice president of product management for Google. It is the first phone in a series of devices for the search giant from various manufacturers and carriers, all of which will be sold in a newly announced Google store:www.google.com/phone.
The phone can be purchased today with service from T-Mobile at $179, or without service for $529. The company plans to add more countries as well as devices from more manufacturers and providers, in the next few weeks, including Verizon Wireless and Vodaphone.
Many analysts cite Google's purchase of mobile advertising firm AdMob as evidence that the company intends to further its position in the nascent mobile advertising market, however. They argue that Google-branded phones may allow the company to more closely control advertisements to users.
The phone highlights the Android 2.1 operating system (which carried the cute code-name "Éclair") that first shipped on the Verizon Droid, meaning this new phone incorporates all the same functionality as that device. Android features multitasking, letting applications run in the background, unlike the iPhone's one-app-at-a-time behavior.
Google explained that the Nexus One is designed to showcase the software the company has been working on for Android, as well as the many widgets that run on the Droid platform. For example, a live wallpaper function enables interactive, moving images as the background wallpaper for the screen.
In addition, the ability to group photos on the phone by category highlights the company's strengths in searching, organizing and displaying an individual's content.
Light and proximity sensors add power saving functionality (Google dims the display based on ambient lighting or proximity to the skull). And there's active noise cancellation through two separate noise sensors, which eliminates background noise when walking down the street.
Google cites innovation around the voice experience as well. The "search by voice" app lets you speak a query rather than typing it. Saying "navigate to Ikea" executes a Google search for the term and automatically returns a map with turn-by-turn navigation to the nearest store. The Nexus One builds this level of voice-connection to other apps: Speech-to-text integration in e-mails is a welcome feature.
A yet-unreleased Google Earth for Android app has promise as well.
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