Search Engine Optimization News Blog

Google employees got their Christmas present early this year, or so reports say.

Tweets galore focusing on the new Google phone started showing up this week; Google Program Manager wrote:

“Stuck in mass of traffic leaving work post last all hands of 2009. ZOMG we had fireworks and we all got the new Google phone. It’s beautiful.”

Jason Howell said:

“The new Google Phone runs on HTC hardware. I saw it w/ Android 2.1. Homescreen has new visual enhancements like animated desktop wallpaper… Supposedly, Google employees were given tons of these phones today. unlocked.”

Another Twittered excitedly:

“A friend from Google showed me the new Android 2.1 phone from HTC coming out in Jan. A sexy beast. Like an iPhone on beautifying steroids.”

The Google Mobile Blog says:

We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.

The Wall Street Journal commented:

The phone is called the Nexus One and is being manufactured for Google by HTC Corp., these people said. It runs Android, the operating system for mobile phones that Google developed, they added.

But unlike the more than half-dozen Android phones made by phone manufacturers today, Google designed virtually the entire software experience behind the phone, from the applications that run on it to the look and feel of each screen.

The Internet giant is taking a new, and potentially risky, approach to selling the device. Rather than selling the phone through a wireless carrier–the way the bulk of phones are sold in the U.S. today–Google plans to sell the Nexus One itself online. Users will have to buy cellular service for the device separately.

Google began sharing a version of the Nexus One with employees in recent days, according to several people familiar with the matter.

Peter Kafka of AllThingsD mentioned that:

But, for sure, Google doesn’t intend to sell its new “Nexus One” phone the typical way, sources familiar with the company’s plans say. Instead, it envisions a scenario where customers who buy the handset on a separate Web site are then provided with another list that lets them pick a carrier, menu-style.

Google (GOOG) has approached multiple carriers about supporting its new phone, which it has designed itself and will be produced by Taiwan’s HTC, offering this selling scenario, sources say.

HTC, by the way, built the T-Mobile’s G1 phone, the first Android-powered one.

But, so far, only T-Mobile has agreed to consider it and actively help push the phone via various distribution channels and support infrastructure, I’m told.

Finally, one user who spoke to Greg at Search Engine Land apparently claims the Nexus One makes Droid “so last month.”

Go Google!