Verizon is overhauling their voice, text and family cell phone plans and throwing in a couple of unlimited talk plans starting at $70/mo, although their pricing, when you include data, doesn’t seem as competitive as Sprint or T-Mobile.
You be the judge, but remember that price alone doesn’t make a happy mobile customer – witness the unhappy iPhone AT&T folks!
If you follow any sort of news, you’ll know that Google announced their Nexus One phone running their Android-supported mobile OS. What’s really unique and new here is that Google is selling the handset directly, and not the carrier.
Here’s what you need to know about the phone: …
Google Releases Nexus One Android Phone – What You Need to KnowRead More »
Motorola’s first Android handset, the CLIQ, makes its first appearance on the T-Mobile network. The CLIQ is a slide-out keyboard handset with a 320×480 3.1″ HVGA screen that operates on WCDMA and GSM networks. Other notable features include the accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, a microSD card slot, touch screen, 802.11b/g WiFi, 6 hour battery life (325 hrs in standby) and of course, all of the various Android applications and features.
Motorola already has other Android handsets in the pipe, and Google has already announced that there will be at least 18 Android handsets by the end of 2009 and certainly more next year.
The Google G1 phone is now available for pre-order on the T-Mobile network for $179.99. You may be able to get your hands on one as early as Oct 22.
So what can you expect in the HTC handset running Android, the Google-sponsored mobile OS? For starters, a touch screen, a slide-out screen that reveals a full QWERTY keyboard, a screen that displays in both landscape and portrait modes, a 3 Megapixel camera, 3G network and Wi-Fi access.
The G1 will come with a number of apps built-in, yes, all centered around Google applications, such as Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk. It will also thankfully have an IM application that is multi-platform.
Google has also already announced the Android Market which is analogous to the iPhone Store, where you can download and/or buy apps for your Android-based phone.
It remains to be seen how successful Google will be with their handsets in terms of open sourcing the whole Android platform. My suspicion is yes they will, and I won’t be surprised if Apple ends up doing something similar with the iPhone OS within a year. After all, if both Google and Nokia/Symbian are running open source systems and have significant market share because of it, well… you can figure out the rest.
