TAG | Nexus One
Google’s Nexus One phone has finally been launched, but was not long-awaited like Apple’s iPhone; on the contrary, people are still a bit confused with Google involving into mobile entities.The cooperation of Google with all carriers and manufactures is natural with Google firmly holding Android as open source, not involving in phone entities, while now Google has also push off its own phone which makes Google a suspect. to take over other’s jobs.
After all, Google is not Apple and Google’s Nexus One is not Apple’s iPhone. Apple’s iPhone takes the way of exclusive. It tightly controls manufacture, design and operation in every respect with the only one unconstrained support from third party software brought by APP Store mode. In this case, the competitive relation between Apple and its competitors is clear all the time. In other words, other mobile phone manufacturers and mobile carriers well know such competitive relation with Google at the very beginning.
However, it’s different for Google who needs large supports from other parties in promoting its open source software Android. Both mobile phone manufacturers and mobile carriers are to be drawn over to Google’s side, but now Google is involved in mobile phone manufacture; then what will these cooperators think?
Of course, we can assume that the target of Google launching Nexus One is Apple which is apparent. Apple’s success in mobile market with the help of iPhone has made Google have to adjust its development strategy. Nevertheless, Google’s advantage is it has vast audiences but most of its audiences concentrate on Internet application unlike Apple who is the leader of consumer electronics products. Thus it is doomed that Google’s phone is difficult to surpass Apple’s iPhone.
What we can be sure is that Google want Nexus One to be its own iPhone and Google hopes to conduct more detail management so as to give full play to Android, but since Android is an open source product, what it needs is more supports from other parties not Google itself practicing what it preaches. Surely, necessary promotion for Android is inevitable, which may be one of the potential reasons for Google to push out Nexus One.
In addition, the choice of operating mode is also crucial for Google to promote Nexus One. It was reported that Nexus One was based on Android 2.1 and Google would cooperate with North America carrier Verizon and European WCDMA carrier Vodafone with cooperating with American T-Mobile in first launch. So there will be two versions: GSM/WCDMA and CDMA. The bare machine of Nexus One costs $529 in first launch and the price for American users contracting with T-Mobile is $179 which is obviously expensive and is higher than iPhone. Will this be a constraint for promoting Nexus One.
Let’s have a look at the configuration of Nexus One. It adopts Qualcomm’s SnapDragon 1GHz CPU, 512MB ROM and RAM, 3.7 inches AMOLED LCD screen with 80*400 pixels and automatic focusing camera with 5 million pixels. Such hardware configuration ranks top in the current mobile phone industry.
As is known to everyone, smart phones are sharply rising and become an arithmetic facility with multiple features. The smart phone brings more challenge than fortune for Google’s network search empire basically builds on the small text ads related to PC searching. As people more and more rely on powerful smart phones to replace traditional PC, their surfing habit will be bound to change. Besides, network ads may lost the position as number one engine of net economy and thus Google’s position as market leader will be threatened.
Therefore, Google strive to develop mobile market and Google executives said they believed their company can thrive again in the field of mobile Internet. But I think Google must carefully handle the problems of how to develop wireless ads market and where to find the chance for the phone entity. As for Google involving in the phone entity, it’s difficult to say whether it will success at present; at least the market holds little hope of it surpassing iPhone.
