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."

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[TubeSteak]

Those wanting to buy the handset subsidized will pay $180 and have to sign up for a two year contract. There appears to be only one plan available for these customers, and that is the T-Mobile Even More Individual 500 Plan, which gives you 500 minutes, free weekend and in-network calls and unlimited SMS, MMS and data. That bring the total cost over two years to $2,100.

The unsubsidized price + a data plan is vastly cheaper

Re:This is just FUD

[signingis]

"just plain old FUD."

You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Re:So

[b0bby]

Actually, it seems T-mobile is doing just that now - "Even More" is their standard subsidized phones + 2 year contract deal, "Even More Plus" is the same plans but no "free" phones or contracts & $10/month less. Maybe the other carriers will follow if T-mobile starts getting people to switch because of this.

OTOH, if you want T-mobile & a Google phone, it makes more sense to pay the extra $10/month to get the subsidized phone, because the amount of subsidy (($530-$180)/24) is almost $15/month.

Nokia N900

[kurt555gs]

You can buy an N900 for $569.00. As long as you are going to drop that kind of change, why would you limit yourself to an Android fone?

Re:CDMA?

[caladine]

Like another poster says in reply to this, there's a lot you've gotten wrong here. You seem to have your technologies confused.

• AMPS (the original analog cell) is first gen.
• Next came GSM, a 2G technology
• CDMA rolled around first in the IS-95 standard, also 2G.
• GSM folks upgraded with GPRS (and later EDGE) making 2.5G networks
• CDMA2000 is a family of 3-3.5G technologies (1x, 1xEVDO/revA/revB)
• GSM people realized that CDMA > TDMA when they got together to make WCDMA (also called UMTS). From a simple view, UMTS is CDMA, but using a 5 MHz frequency band, rather than the ~1.25 MHz band that CMDA uses. There's more to it, of course.
• 3.5G networks use UMTS + HSPA/HSPA+. Not that there are really many networks that use anything more than the 3.6Mbps HSPA. (which, incidentally isn't much faster than EVDOrA @ 3.1 Mbps)
• 4G is LTE and WiMax (sort of).

The only reason that smartphones make more sense at the moment on GSM/UMTS networks has nothing to do with the technology involved, but the economics. There are a lot more people on GSM/UMTS networks than CDMA, mostly due to the fact that CDMA was a late comer to the cell phone game. My guess is that the CDMA follow-on will come later in the year.

Re:Invite only?

[thePsychologist]

The _buying_ of the phone is not invite only. That's just the special event to unveil it. It's in the article.