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."

Comments

So

[jimbobborg]

Who got invited? Whoopi Goldberg? Or one of the celebs on the T-Mobile Android ads?

And $530 for an unlocked phone that will last about three years? Really?

Re:So

[Undead Waffle]

Last I heard all of the US carriers were requiring the data plan if you had a smart phone. Any word on whether the "Even More Plus" plan does this? Again, last time I looked into it AT&T would detect the smart phone on their network regardless of whether it was bought separately and add the $30/month data plan to your bill for you. Any carrier that lets me bring my own smart phone without requiring me to pay $30 for an internet connection I'll barely ever use has a good chance of getting my business next time my contract expires.

A little more competition is a good thing

[DJRumpy]

I can only hope this brings down the cost of these phones. The prices are already greater than the cost of netbooks and bargain laptops/desktops. I realize that miniaturization is a factor, but we really need more strong competitors in this area. I would much prefer a non-subsidized phone except the price is a little daunting all in one lump sum.

Re:A little more competition is a good thing

[Seor Jojoba]

Just buy it with a credit card. And pay the debt off at $20/month or whatever is convenient. You'll be better off in the long run, because we'll get the carriers to start competing as big dumb pipes. The emphasis will be on coverage/speed for the buck, instead of some wacky chase after the latest "It" phone. We should all stop being scared off by upfront costs and letting phone carriers handle our financing through subsidies.

Subsidy lock?

[alecto]

If someone buys the phone with the subsidy then subsequently leaves T-mo and pays the ETF, will T-mo unlock the phone? Also, is the ETF prorated? In any case, it seems that the combination of a cheap phone for voice and a netbook/laptop + WiFi or if ubiquitous access is necessary a data stick are a better deal for the money.

Re:Invite only?

[CyberLord Seven]

Consider yourself fortunate that you are not on the invite list. Remember the dorks who bought the iPhone when it first came out? Remember those same dorks just a few months later when Apple dropped the price? :)

I suspect this invite only thing is just to drum up interest in the phone. Soon, everyone and his brother will be able to buy one just like Gmail.

whining about prices

[Ritz_Just_Ritz]

Like all the other smartphones in recent memory, they cost a fortune if you're an early adopter. If you don't want to get mugged then just wait a couple of months for the hoopla to die down. Your old phone won't stop working in the interim if you don't have the latest whizbang handset the day after its release.

Re:prices?

[Seor Jojoba]

The funny thing is that T-Mobile offers a pretty decent plan with 3G data for $50/month which would be my first choice. But if you buy the subsidized phone, you get the spendy $80/month plan which doesn't really have good value to warrant the extra cost, IMO. Difference seems to be just more minutes and unlimited SMSs. So I could see buying the unsubsidized phone, and just getting the cheaper T-Mobile data plan separately.

Also, T-Mobile is one of the major carriers that refused to turn over customer information to US officials without a warrant. And they got KZJ, who is much sexier than the "Can You Hear Me Now" guy.

Re:Invite only?

[MBGMorden]

You clearly haven't been hanging out with the same people I have. It seems that every person between 14 and 30 is caught up in phones - what theirs can do, what yours can't, and new/shiny. Hell from what I've seen in the last 3 years or so teenage and early 20's girls get as geeky over their phones as geeks do over their computers.

A friend of my sisters was out with us a while back - overall a pretty superficial girl. Not bright about most things, and works in one of those trendy shops where they sell bath oils and the like. Somebody said something about their phone and my God she took off. Whipping out her phone showing what it could do - and not just "OMG it can do interwebs!" talk. Discussing various input methods, which phones did what better and how, connectivity, the works. It would be what you would expect if some clueless noob said something in passing about the GPL around a Linux geek - just about phones. She has been the most extreme of this I found, but certainly not the only one. The nation as a whole (well, the younger crowd anyways) is in love with the smartphone right now.

Re:Invite only?

[Red Flayer]

That's a very interesting point I hadn't considered until now.

The invite system may be yet another way that Google collects information useful to them in selling advertising, etc... they can identify "power brokers" in tech marketing, which would be valuable information to advertisers (and to their internal marketing).

Yech.