Google to Sell Nexus One Directly, But T-Mobile USA to Support It

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So as we all pretty much knew, Google is going to be selling Nexus One directly to buyers. What we didn’t know was that it seems T-Mobile USA and HTC will be supporting the device. So if you have issues with the phone, you can call Google or HTC for help and if you have issues with service, billing, etc you can call T-Mobile USA.

Which makes me wonder, does that mean they are selling it unlocked but they are preferring you buy it on T-Mobile? This would coincide with the report about how the Nexus One has T-Mobile 3G built in and NOT AT&T 3G.

There is also a rumor that T-Mobile might be subsidizing the phone on a contract or payment plan as well.

So my question is, what is the difference between this and just letting T-Mobile sell it?

I mean the only thing I can see here would be the fact that Google would have control over updates etc and wouldn’t have to load T-Mobile proprietary software etc. Which is great and all, but I think we all expected something more…

What do you guys think? And anyone switching to T-Mobile for the Nexus One?

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  • Universal unlocked phone. Makes sense to me. Why Nokia did not do that with the n900 to support ATT and T-mobile 3g is a mystery since it is not a featured phone. The fat lady has not sung yet.

    • Dennis,

      Why all manufacturer’s don’t do this or even pentaband is beyond me. It can’t cost that much more to put all the 3G frequencies into a phone? And wouldnt the much larger potential customer base make up for that? Eh who knows.

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  • Nick

    I think people got too worked up about this phone. I’m still with my G1 on T-Mobile so I’ll definitely be switching over. Looks like a great piece of hardware. Something T-Mobile has been lacking. It was hard to fight the Droid envy. I would love to have the latest software updates. I’m currently using cyanogenmod which makes the G1 bearable.

    • Nick & Noel,

      Ya, I mean its a nice phone don’t get me wrong but I think we assumed Google would pull something off here with this unit and change the game a little.
      I would have made a CDMA/GSM phone with pentaband 3G (so all companies 3G would work on it in the world) then sell it worldwide and let people choose what carrier they wanted. Even though that seems simple, that would have at least been a first in the wireless industry and people might have jumped on it. What it now seems they are doing is just selling a phone for T-Mobile.
      Although, this could be a test run. Google could be doing this to see how it will sell and then go from there. Eh we’ll see.

  • Noel

    With such anticipation and desire for the Google NEXUS ONE, why would google try to stunt the sales of this phone with such plan. Trust me i can already see the lines forming infront of Tmobile stores for those eager to get their hands on this BABY…but w/ such a sales plan…i doubt how many will be sold on the first week or month. Hmmmm idk their thinking, but it looks like a plan to stunt the original sales of this monster device as it gets out of the gate…

  • Duffin

    I seriously hope that Google sells the phone at a reduced price. If I could buy the Nexus One without subsidy for under $250 I totally would. I’m already with T-Mobile and have a contract until October 2010,so i can’t get an upgrade price. If they are going to make the phone $500 or $600 without a subsidy, I’ll be SOL which will be very disappointing.

    • Duffin,

      Where do people keep getting this $200 price range? lol I mean that would be amazing, but I highly doubt (at least not without subsidy). Does anyone have a link for this price range or is everyone just wishful thinking at this point?
      I even had some guy rudely tell me that it will be $200 and that when Im wrong he wants me to point to the comments on my site where I said it wont be or something lol I’m not saying that it is impossible and I of all people would be thrilled if it were $200 or whatever, but with the hardware in it and the fact that it is coming from HTC it is HIGHLY unlikely. Only way it would get to the price is if Google was losing money on it when they sold it OR they cut some revolutionary deal with HTC where they bought the phone close to cost. But since HTC is handling the customer care and warranty that second option seems unlikely too.
      Hmmm… we’ll see. Anyone have a link talking about pricing at all?

  • I think Nexus has to be a thank you to T-mobile for jumping on the Android band wagon first. G1 as much as the battery life sucked it’s still a solid phone. Mytouch is great when you mod it to hero. The Nexus will dominate the android field for a while. Because it’s googles baby so it should get all updates before anone else. I can’t wait to have this phone, I still love my g1 “rooted” so I’ll keep both :-).

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  • The image you have posted is an internal page from T-Mobile for only employees to see. So of course on that page it will say T-Mobile will support the billing because if you buy one from Google and use it on T-Mobile they will have to support your billing needs.

    I do also hope it comes with some sort of subsidy to T-Mobile, but that imahe doesn’t tell us that. However, it does tell us the Nexus is most definitely coming in January which is almost more important.

  • luis

    that phone will run over a 1000 dollars easy according to the specs compare it to the htc hd2 with the snapdragon 1gz processor no way its going to be under 1000

  • Fusion

    First off this Phone will not go over $600 for the fact that it must have some competition with the other smartphones that are out. Right now as I write the IPhone is the top dog and grandfather of all smartphones, and it sells with contract for $199. without contract your looking at 6 to $700. So if Google plans on making a dent on this mobile warz of 2010 it needs to think twice about its price plans. With that said, Nexus One is a Geek of art device but it will do everything any other smartphone dose at the moment, just a lot faster.”Think before you buy”.

  • Y314K

    I thought it was gonna cost 0.99cents & it was going to be exclusively available at 99 cent stores…

    • Y314K,

      Ha, what?! Not at the Hess station down the street, too?! Hess never gets any cool phones to sell…

  • Ejaydroid

    I think this phone will be great and will blow away its competition however no one will ever know because some genius thought Americans would pay that much for a phone I’m sorry Google I love android but if its over 300 no one is going to get it. They should have just subsides the dam phone thay are taking a huge gamble with this phone and getting off the beat path may noy have been wise this time

  • Y314K

    Price Alert…

    The Unlockr was right… Sadly he is right…lol

    Their notes include:

    * Yeah, it’s $530 unsubsidized. Google’s not going to be selling the phone at cost, like so many people considered. They’re not going to save us from the “making money off of hardware” culture we’ve got right now, so this is basically just another Android handset, albeit a really good one
    * If you want it subsidized, you’ll have to sign up for a 2 year mandatory contract and pay $180 for the phone
    * There’s only one rate plan: $39.99 Even More + Text + Web for $79.99 total
    * Existing customers cannot keep their plan if they want a subsidized phone; they have to change to the one plan, and this only applies to accounts with one single line
    * If that doesn’t fly with you, you have to buy the $530 unlocked version—this actually might save you money over two years if you already have a cheap plan
    * Family plans, Flexpay, SmartAccess and KidConnect subscribers must buy the phone unlocked and unsubsidized for $530
    * You can only buy five Nexus One phones per Google account
    * There is language in the agreement of shipping outside the US
    * Google will sell it at google.com/phone, which explains what they were doing with that page a few weeks ago
    * Google will still call it the Nexus One apparently, and not the Google Phone
    * If you cancel your plan before 120 days, you have to pay the subsidy difference between what you paid and the unsubsidized price, so $350 in this case. Or you can return the phone to Google. You also authorize them to charge this directly to your credit card.

  • Y314K

    I guess we can all just wait for HTC Bravo…

    Since it will be even better then the Nexus One for the same price…lol

  • Y314K

    What’s the point of this phone being release…

    No VoIP for Data Only contract…

    No White Channel Tech….

    No 720p recording…

    No Divx support…

    No laser mouse…

    Other then getting updates directly from google… What’s the point….lol

  • Y314K

    For that price… Just get the HTC Bravo…

    With Divx, 720p recording & laser mouse + Sense UI which can be taken off if you like…

    Since they both seem to cost the same unsub… and sub… Might was well the get the real thing…

    http://androidandme.com/2009/12/phones/a-closer-look-at-the-updated-specs-of-the-android-powered-htc-bravo/

    Updated HTC Bravo specs as of December 7, 2009:

    * Size: 112 x 56 x 11.7 mm
    * Networks: WCDMA/HSPA: 900/2100 Mhz; GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
    * Maximum speed: UL = 2 Mbps; DL = 7.2 Mbps
    * OS: Android 2.0 (likely to ship with Android 2.1)
    * Display: 3.7-inch WVGA (480×800) AMOLED capacitive touch screen
    * Camera: 5 megapixel with auto focus with dual LED flash; High definition 720p video capture
    * Internal memory: 512 MB flash ROM; 320 MB RAM* (original RAM was 256 MB); 16 GB micro SD card included
    * Chipset: Qualcomm QSD8250 1 GHz Snapdragon
    * Battery: 1400 mAh
    * Also: Optical joystick, microSD, WLAN (802.11 b/g), Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, GPS/AGPS, G-Sensor, Digital Compass, FM radio, microUSB, 3.5mm audio jack
    * Special features: DivX, Dolby, Facebook, FlickR, Twitter, Microsoft Exchange

    So other then google direct updates which XDA is better at… What’s the point on this phone..lol

  • anonymous

    I am a Tmobile employee and even though the phone is 530 without a contract i would suggest going that route. Even more plus plans are crazy cheap (you could get a 500 min plan with unlim text and web for 59.99). If you get the phone subsidized and go with an even more plan that lowest plan would be 79.99.

    79.99 over two years PLUS $200 is not the way to go.

    Get it without a contract on even more plus 59.99, and then pay the phone off in 20 monthly payments (on approved credit with no apr). If you put a down payment of 200 on the phone it will make the payments 17.50/month.

    59.99+17.50= 77.50 a month w/ 200 down payment.

    This way comes out cheaper, you dont get on a contract, and once u pay off the phone ur bill would become $20 less a month. And even more plus has free overage alerts if u get close to going over mins.

    • Anonymous,

      Good point and nice math, no need to be anonymous. Sure T-Mobile would be happy that you were being helpful and saving them unhappy overpaying customers when they make the same profit whether we get a contract or not 🙂

  • skilz

    Lol yeah your’re right unlockr, but i guess some tmo employees got fired for posting even more plan info before the plans came out. This is obviously a lot different since it is regarding a phone theyre not even helping manufacture.

    By the way the calculations were actually a little off. For an even more plus plan, putting a down payment of 200 dollars would actually make the payments of the phone 16.50/month. I used the 180 dollar price point for my calculation above.

    • Skillz,

      Not even that, your helping TMo with your post, not divulging any information that someone else couldnt have calculated if they were so inclined, so no worries lol
      Ah well the $180 would be the better calculation so we compare apples to apples I guess. But isnt it the case with all phones bought from TMobile, isn’t it slightly cheaper to go no contract with a payment plan?

  • skilz

    It is cheaper 95% of the time. Once in a while an expensive phone such as a mytouch or blackberry becomes free (or something a lot less than $400) for a limited time on a 2 year contract, which ends up making the contract plan cheaper because you’re saving so much on the phone.

    It is only cheaper for the first couple of years, however, so after the 2 year contract is up on that phone just switch to an even more plus no contract plan.

    Tmobile hasnt really had too many “deals” that make the no contract price of a phone cheaper.

  • remixfa

    theres almost never a reason to stay on a contract plan with tmobile. you save so much over 2 years by going no contract. 20/month savings between the same plan contract and no contract X 24 months is 480 bux savings. if you have a family plan, its a 40 a month difference at the unl plans for 2 phones, thats almost a grand over 2 yrs.