Google pulls plug on Nexus One
zdnet.com
zdnet.com
Sad to see them giving up on challenging the carriers, but with no retail 'Google stores' where people could examine the thing before paying ~$500 for it that's not very surprising. I still like mine, even though I might have saved a few $ by buying a Droid or something.
Since many of those models are also sold in telco retail stores, you can do your research there, and buy the unlocked version online.
http://store.vodafone.com.au/handset-htc-nexus-one.aspx?pid=...
http://ausdroid.net/2010/07/02/vodafone-only-have-1000-nexus...
I was going to pick one up for cross platform game development with Unity3D, but this was before I found out that developers in Australia still can't sell apps on the Android Marketplace. I thought Google would have their shit together with this by now.
"Here’s the list of Android phones you can buy today other than the Nexus One which support Android version 2.2: {}."
Incidentally, 2.2 (via the CM6 test) runs just fine on my Sapphire. The joy of Free Software is that I can fix my own device that is no longer the flavor of the month. T-Mobile will never give that device an Android > 2.0. But the community can, and it works much better than the stock image.
(Android 2.2 sort of works on my EVO 4G. The 4G doesn't work, but then again, since the EVO came out, Sprint's 4G hasn't worked in Chicago anyway. So I guess 2.2 works fine on the EVO, actually.)
Anyway, it all comes down to how you define supported. If you mean, "in the form of a bloatware ROM filled with ads for your carrier", you're right, Android 2.2 is not supported by anything. If you mean, "I can check it out from git, compile it, and load it onto my phone", well, pretty much everything supports 2.2 now. Pretty awesome, if you ask me.
Froyo, aka Android 2.2, was released on May 20. It's now July 19th, almost two months later. The fact that only one phone will support an OS for more than two months is a problem.
I'm sure some people are frustrated by it, but following "publish early and often", and all that goes with it, is how open source works.
It should mean "this is an Android phone that is built with Google's blessing and with Google's support, so lean back and don't worry".
I don't think your statement is correct.
It turns out that the Google mark really is meaningless.
Myself and most of my friends who I recommended the Nexus One to on the basis of first updates and vanilla software, we are now all running CM6.
Maybe it's not the majority of phones then, but my point still stands that the stamp is fairly meaningless.
Why you (or Mr. Gruber) would consider it a problem that one phone model would receive updates sooner than others is something of a mystery to me, particularly on such a short timescale. It's not even out for the Nexus One in my country yet.
edit: US rollout began 28th June, and phased in with most users getting an update notification within that first week, http://googlenexusoneboard.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-android-...
How about something that just works?
In the real world, the perfect balance lies somewhere between the two. For every Android phone I have owned, there is always a middle ground. On one side, is the carrier ROM with their ads removed. On the other side, is a community-supported open-source build, like Cyanogen Mod. These are the sort of possibilities alluded to by my posts, without worrying the reader about concrete problems (like how the first is copyright infringement, and the second can be unstable).
Oh well, next time I will just write a computer program to unambiguously represent the set of possible meanings, so nobody will have to do any thinking on their own.
Like you said, typical users such as your parents have no idea what software their phone is running; they just want it to work. Android 2.1 works perfectly well, and the fact that 2.2 has been announced but is not yet commercially available is no hindrance to people who don't care for such matters.
The only people who really seem to be getting up in arms about Android 2.2 not being available right now are the Apple fanatics.
Some phones will be updated, and some will not. Some won't get the update because:
1. The hardware is too old/slow/underpowered/too little RAM for the new OS
2. The manufacturer/carrier doesn't give a damn and doesn't feel like pouring money into an old phone when doing so doesn't give them any new revenue.
Either way, your complaint isn't with Android or Google.
So your comparison is not adequate.
The fact that unlocked multi-carrier phones aren't readily available is a problem with how the carriers and wireless service works, and has nothing to do with Android, or iOS, for that matter.
That is a problem with the structure of the Android ecosystem, which by extension is a complaint with Android itself.
Apple has, what... 8 devices (4 generations of iPhone, 3 of iPod Touch, and the iPad) out? Hell, at least that many new Android phones have or will come out this year alone!
And even Apple can't keep all their devices up-to-date: people with the iPhone 3G are reporting slowness and instability with iOS 4. I imagine the 1st-gen iPod Touch (and maybe even 2nd-gen) would have trouble as well. And last I read, iOS 4 isn't available yet for the iPad. So Apple's track record is (on the generous side) that 50% of their potentially-capable devices work with iOS 4.
There's an easy way to solve the "what version of Android does this phone I'm considering buying have on it?" problem -- ask a salesperson. If they don't know, ask the manufacturer. Or just google for it. I'm sure someone else has the phone and has noted it somewhere, or some reviewer has gotten a review unit and has noted the version.
And how do you know if it's going to get upgrades? You go by the manufacturer's past record with such things. The interwebs can tell you all this, and more.
This is the same problem we had in the past, but it is more of an issue now. This is what Apple freed us from, no matter what carrier it is on in the world, I can upgrade my phone.
Android do a lot of things right, this is not one of them.
Huh? We're not talking about the laptop (phone) you bought today. We're talking about the one you bought a year (or more) ago.
And the laptop comparison is limited: new laptops generally have more than enough power to run the current OS and apps. Embedded devices usually have just enough and not much more. People don't like to buy $1000 phones, so we get a single-core 1GHz Snapdragon with 512MB of RAM instead of a dual-core 1GHz Tegra2 with 1GB of RAM.
> This is the same problem we had in the past, but it is more of an issue now. This is what Apple freed us from, no matter what carrier it is on in the world, I can upgrade my phone.
Well, unless you have an iPhone 3G -- reports are that iOS4 is unstable and slow as hell.
And I have a Nexus One, and I can use it on whatever carrier I like, and upgrade it to whatever software I like. Granted, custom Android mods aren't for your average consumer, but I expect (ok, wishfully hope) that to change in the next few years.
Some support cutoff point for old models makes sense.
It's not a problem, it's a trade-off. Given the rapid advancement of Android lately, it can be argued that it's an appropriate one. Pick your poison, eh?
And that's kind of a tautology. You're tied to one manufacturer and one carrier. I can walk into the Verizon store and purchase the most expensive HTC phone and I know that I have the latest HTC on Verizon just like you know you have the latest Apple device on AT&T. A lack of choice doesn't mean you automatically have something better in your hands.
Company handsets no longer make up 99% of smartphone, if at all they ever did.
Just wow.
Now, to be fair, the non-enterprise developer program lets you distribute your app to 100 devices too, but you need to pre-enter those devices's IDs beforehand. There's no way to hit between 100-500 devices.
And it makes sense - why would one need the same phone to appear more than once?
http://docs.python.org/dev/whatsnew/2.7.html#python-3-1-feat...
Sadly, I am stuck with 2.4~2.6 for now. Can't wait.
Most customers don't know, much less care about, the exact version number of their phone's operating system. They care about what the operating system can do for them. But I suppose if Gruber were to compare the actual capabilities of currently available Android systems vs. iOS 4, he would have much less to be snarky about on Apple's behalf.
actual capabilities of currently available Android
systems vs. iOS 4
I buy an android phone, and it doesn't have built in mifi, I am going to be annoyed (I am ok, I have a nexus one).
An even better questions is... who cares? I have an N1 with 2.2 on it. I was happy with it with 2.1 on it. I'm slightly happier with 2.2 on it. I know people with Droids with whatever is on it, and they're happy with it. I know people with Droid Incredibles, and they're happy with what's on that.
Why do you assume that the average smartphone user is always chasing the most recent version of software that may or may not be available for their particular handset? It's all just hypocritical argumentation. On one hand we have the people who say "well you can install CyanogenMod on it" get shot down by others who say "your average user won't install CM," while these same "others" claim that the average user actually gives a damn that they don't have 2.2 yet. I don't think they do. And I think minority who actually does will be informed enough to decide if they want to take the leap and install CM. Probably most won't, but that's their choice.
I have no idea how many of those devices shipped with 1.x and were upgraded, or shipped with 2.1 installed.
Browser runs like crap. Try loading a page with a bunch of graphics and text. It will run like a flip book cartoon.
The music player is laughable. It doesn't even match up to an ipod classic.
The exchange syncing does not work correctly, especially calendar syncing.
And a laundry list of other 'features' which exist in Android but are woefully inadequate.
I would switch back to an iPhone in a heartbeat if it wasn't on ATT.
- Free turn by turn navigation that's better than any dedicated gps device.
- Wifi or bluetooth tethering. I recently was travelling with my girlfriend, and we both could access the internet on our laptops routed over WiFi through my phone. The hotel even had free wifi, but it was easier to not bother with figuring out how to set that up, and just use my phone.
- Fully integrated Google Voice.
Other than the turn by turn every other feature you said is available with jail broken ios. So you get the best of both worlds: slick usabe interface and powerful features.
I honestly don't know why more people don't jailbreak their iPhones.
- Wifi or bluetooth tethering.
Biggest for me is file browsers, being able to copy content onto the device from across the network, not needing to deal with iTunes.
I've replaced the default media browser, video player etc.
And I can use my phone in bed with auto rotate disabled without having to jailbreak.
To me, the primitive nature of iOS stands out. It has a lot of polish, but it is simply less functional, less useful.
It isn't about using the phone as a mass storage device, dummy! It's about being able to e.g. add and remove music, movies, photos etc. to and from the device and a network location, over the air, without ever having to plug into another computer.
I don't have one, can anyone confirm?
It's not that Americans are stupid and the rest of the world is smart. The problem is that you typically pay the same monthly service fee whether you take a subsidized phone or not. To go buy your own phone at full retail price is leaving hundreds of dollars on the table. (T-Mobile is the notable exception as they let you pay slightly less for a contractless plan.)
Also, few people are willing to buy an expensive phone that they can't even hold in their hand first. My understand was that Google was going to try to get the phones some retail space in e.g. Best Buy.
Before my (coincidentally, American) employer started paying my phone bills, I had a service from one of the local operators here. In my "smart" country the costs were as follows:
- monthly fee: 0,67€
- phone calls: 0,069€ / minute
- texting: 0,069€ / message
Admitting I indeed don't talk on the phone that much and I don't use data services, I rarely racked up more than 5-10 euros a month. I could get 512k-2M data plan for 10-30 euros a month. Still, any plan that comes bundled with a decent phone here is many times more expensive.
Yeah, T-mobile is really great about this. I'm saving over a thousand dollars over the life of the phone by getting a data-only plan.
I have been trying to find a device that would make it easy to make VoIP calls most of the time, since I am nearly always around free (or already-paid for) wireless broadband, but fall back on a prepaid SIM card when I only have cell network coverage. Some of the Android devices look promising for this, especially the Nexus One, but I have been unable to find hard information about whether it's possible to do this conveniently.
Yeah. You need the Google Code version of SipDroid; the one in the market is crippled: http://code.google.com/p/sipdroid/
So for the random guy on the Internet recommendation: overall, I would buy this phone again, especially if I had wide-ranging access to WiFi.
The other point, not being able to handle it first, I agree with, although it didn't stop me.
Maximum profit as a consumer as the $750 spread over the 24 month contract gives you an effective $31.25 a month discount. Plus, you get it up front so you can invest it or do whatever you want with the money.
My corporation qualifies me for a 20% AT&T discount. I could effectively keep my iPhone 3GS, which works just great, and reduce my phone bill from $66 a month down to $35 - and still have unlimited data as a grandfathered plan.
The game works if you know how to play it... ;-)
I upgraded from a dumb phone recently and wanted to buy a Nexus One, but T-Mobile lady told me Google required a much more expensive plan, that the buy-one-get-one free sale wasn't applicable, and that there were all other kinds of undesirable things about it. It also cost a lot of money for the device itself, and I don't have a lot of money.
So while I would have really liked to buy a N1, I bought a G1 for $99, got another G1 for my wife for free, and took them home, rooted, and installed Android 2.1 and I'm perfectly happy with it. We're on a plan that is about $30 less than our separate dumb phones and includes unlimited data and text. And none of this would have been possible with a Nexus One.
I don't see any reason why this would be part of Google's fundamental strategy. I don't have a problem with Google selling phones online or directly or being the exclusive dealer, but the Nexus One was just too much hassle and would have cost much, much more in the long term.
I suspect carrier pressure. They really don't want us to start asking intelligent questions such as why they should be able to lock us into multiyear contracts and control how we can use our own property.
but the Nexus One was just too much hassle and would have cost much, much more in the long term
It sounds like you're on a family plan. If you weren't, the unsubsidized N1 would come out cheaper over two years using T-Mobile's contract-free plans. And you can "cancel" anytime without an ETF.
The biggest thing that prevents me from trying out lots of ROMs is that I really don't want to wipe the phone. Does anyone know a good way to backup/restore after a wipe without paying for one of the backup apps? I don't have money, as mentioned earlier.
I don't think Google tries very hard at anything these days. Just as it historically took companies decades to reach Google's income level, Google has also accelerated the normal process of growing into a fossilized incumbent.
Say what you will about Apple, but at least they still act like they want to win.
Google never wanted to try to cut out the middle-men. Google didn't want to push the phone too much. They just wanted to put it out there to be able to let them know, "Here, look, this is what you can do with this technology at this price point."
As was pointed out at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1529657, Google achieved its aims. The Nexus One was a success. It can go away now.
If you pay attention, you'll often see companies do strange and counter-intuitive things because their goal isn't simply to make money on every single product. Study and learn, because they often aren't being nearly as stupid as you might think.
Google is betting that they benefit more from a lot of competitive browsers, than from having an iron grip on a single browser. Conversely, they can't allow someone else with an iron grip to hold the browser market back to benefit themselves. The same is true of the phone market.
Google's strategy with the Nexus One strategy is an occasional strategy. If you're not planning to go into a line of business, it is a lot of money to spend for uncertain reward. That said, I'm quite sure that Google would not be adverse to using it again if they found a good reason to do so.
Maybe it's fair to say that the problems involved in selling direct to the consumer are relatively insurmountable, unless your company has expertise in that domain.
I think Google must have underestimated the task.
Or overestimated their own interest in playing this game.
...don't they have to be interested in playing this game?
A plain Ubuntu or plain Android installation is what I want. Are there really no other Android phones that come without? Oh crap.
(FYI U.S. citizens: most mobile phones in Finland and Europe are sold separately from the carrier plan, thus making it easy for people to buy directly from Google. If only they had decided to sell...)
Galaxy S takes 1 file, 1 reboot, 1 click and its rooted. Just as an example.
The N1 was what moved me out of the iPhone camp because I found this to be a breath of fresh air. The N1's contemporaries just aren't as open, and given the phone vendors' track records if you buy an Android phone today you're not guaranteed any software updates in a timely manner or even at all. Google made this their flagship device and was what they were using to dogfood the OS, so I was confident the N1 this would continue to see improvement for the useful life of the device.
I'll probably be in the market for a new phone by this time next year, and I hope there is a decent replacement for the N1 in terms of openness with a vendor who's committed to supporting it. If my phone is going to be locked down tighter than a drum, I may as well get an iPhone, because Apple has at least established a track record that the device will get software updates through the life of the 2 year contract.
I think they gave up too soon.
Had grandma and joe sixpack started using it they might never have been able to handle the support issues. I think they identified a set of users who gave them high "bang for their buck" and specifically targeted them. I know many people say they never saw an ad for the N1 and yet I saw them for a solid 2 months straight on every page that had Google ads on them.
“The idea a year and a half ago was to do the Nexus One to try to move the phone platform hardware business forward. It clearly did. It was so successful, we didn't have to do a second one. We would view that as positive but people criticised us heavily for that. I called up the board and said: 'Ok, it worked. Congratulations - we're stopping'."
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/7864223/Googles...
But it cost more than the N1. Here in Italy Vodafone sell (if you can find it) the N1 without contract for 499€, while the iPhone 3GS is now 539€.
Except Apple hasn't cut out the middle-man. In fact, the notion that carriers are middle-men is silly. If anything, Apple is the middle-man getting consumers locked into AT&T's poorly priced and overpriced data plans. The hardware is incidental, which is why Google 'failed.' The carriers refuse to offer data service, only phones with bundled service.
And it's a great phone, esp. with 2.2 on it.
A 14 day/$45 restocking fee policy is pretty bad. When it's for a $500 device you can't play with anywhere before purchasing, it's abysmal.
I own an iPhone and prefer it due to hardware/software experience, but the Droid is pretty cool and the Droid X has some killer features.
Google will continue to improve the OS, and I'm sure the device will get better and better in the years to come.
And if for some reason they don't, Cyanogen and others will. I expect an N1 will have a longer useful life than a Droid X.
But I do see iPad ads. I see iPhone ads. I see iPod ads. Often.
Since Google's business is advertising, I am amused.
One month after sending it in for repair they lost the thing twice, sent it back with the same issue and want me to go through it all again!