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Comment by fbu | Hacker News Reader

Maybe the keyboard isn't dead yet ...

More likely it's operator driven sales. Motorola and Verizon put (and continue to do so) a ton of muscle behind the Droid. The Nexus One on the other hand one isn't sold in operator channels and isn't advertised in the real world to any large degree. When the Nexus One arrives on Verizon Wireless it will be interesting to see if it stays outside or is sold internally.

It also could be that the Nexus One was simply a warning shot to the phone makers to shape up and start making powerful well designed Android phones and will never make it into real sales channels.

From what I understand about the Nexus One, it is incompatible with Verizon's network (and AT&T's 3G network, though it will work on AT&T's EDGE network). And from what I can gather, Google has no intention of releasing a rev2 with support for either Verizon's or AT&T's network.

What frustrates me about Motorola (and, by proxy, AT&T) is the lackluster Backflip. Outdated OS (Android 1.5), last-generation hardware (screen resolution, storage space, speed)... I wonder if AT&T prevented them from porting the Droid over due to their relationship with Apple/iPhone. When I called AT&T to find out when my contract was up, they tried to sell me on the Backflip - which, compared to the N1 and my iPhone 3G, is a serious downgrade.

(Adding an additional insult: three days later, I got a flier in the mail suggesting I re-up my contract by getting a free Nokia 6750 - a crappy flip-phone)

Where are you getting your info?

They seem to be selling nexus one as if it has support for At&T's 3G.

https://www.google.com/phone/choose?hl=en&gl=US&s7e=

Also it seems that they plan on releasing nexus one to Verizon if you scroll down... ("Coming Soon").

I don't see how they'd miss the whole point of their whole endeavor (to have people using their phone/OS on as many networks as possible) by not releasing the phone to as many networks as possible...

Maybe Google has an error on their website, but that seems like a hard sell to me...

The current Nexus One doens't support AT&T Wireless' 3G bands (which globally speaking are odd), but they are bringing out a model that does. At the moment you'll be using EDGE if you're on AT&T with a Nexus One.

Update: hey what do you know, they brought out the AT&T 850/1900MHz 3G banded version this morning. That may explain why I can't reach the store page. You can't buy it with service though.

The AT&T compatible phone is new as of today (or maybe yesterday). I just checked a day or two ago and it wasn't there.

Sadly, that means that you need to choose between a phone compatible with AT&T (and Rogers in Canada), and one compatible with T-Mobile and most of the rest of the world.

ooh, i see, so it was a matter of there being two different models of the nexus one, very interesting.

The current model is GSM, but they announced they are creating a CDMA version for Verizon Wireless.

http://www.google.com/support/android/bin/answer.py?hl=en...

"We are working hard to provide Nexus One phones optimized for the Verizon network - please stay tuned."

I wouldn't be surprised if it shows up within the next month.

"...Google has no intention of releasing a rev2 with support for either Verizon's or AT&T's network."

Actually, they are now, as of today (I checked just a day or two ago and the option wasn't there), selling a Nexus One compatible with AT&T's 3G frequencies. And they say that a Verizon compatible N1 will be coming some time this spring.

https://www.google.com/phone/choose

Sadly, you have to choose between an N1 with AT&T/Rogers compatible frequencies for 3G, and T-Mobile frequencies for 3G. Which means that you can't change carriers without losing your 3G connectivity. Right now, I'm in an area that T-Mobile doesn't cover, so AT&T would be my only choice. However, I may move soon, and T-Mobile has plans that are cheaper for what I want (mostly data, very little voice and text). I really wish I could get a phone on AT&T now, and then have the option of switching to T-Mobile if I move.

I don't think so with respect to the last sentence. I'm pretty sure it is just a failed attempt to make carriers irrelevant. I feel like Google has the same dream Apple does, to make carriers an interchangeable commodity, but logically that doesn't make sense since a phone is only as good as the service it's tied to, and the expense of a top quality unit necessitates a 2 year contract. People, quite logically, choose their carrier and then their phone, and Google et al. can rage against that machine for years but it won't change.

If they wanted to fire a warning shot, they would have made a deal with one of the major carriers and pushed the hell out of it, rather than selling it only to people who read Engadget.

Perhaps we have different definitions of warning shots. I was going for the, "Hey guys look at what we can do" variety while you're going for more of a, "We just took all your customers, back off" version. I think Google is fine not making handsets, they just want someone to make a best of breed handset and that hadn't happened before the N1.

I think the N1 has at minimum spooked Apple severely, which is probably exactly what Google was aiming for.

and the expense of a top quality unit necessitates a 2 year contract

meh!?

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