High Speed Internet Access (HSIA): Mobile Internet

The new “Google Phone”, the Nexus One will be unveiled today, 5th January. It’s a mobile Internet based smartphone running on Google’s Android operating system and is likely to be a strong competitor for the Apple iPhone.

Nexus One is manufactured by HTC who have previously developed other phones in partnership with Google namely HTC Magic and G1. This is the first smartphone to be branded by Google.

Android is open source compared with the iPhone closed source operating system.which makes it easier to develop new applications and is likely to appeal to consumers. Whether it will significantly challenge the iPhone dominance of the smartphone market will remain to be seen.

Google’s Nexus One phone is likely to be sold as an unlocked handset, not subsidised by carriers. Most telecom companies heavily subsidise phones often offering handsets free up front in order to get the more lucrative monthly contacts with consumers. Google’s business model will be to use the handset as an advertising platform.

The price of the Nexus One is rumoured to be around $500 but the details are not known yet. The handset details have been leaked over the last few months and it looks similar to the iPhone but a bit thinner. It has a 3.7” display, 512MB of RAM, a 4GB microSD card, 5 megapixel camera, bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. The Android online store will be accessible via the handset with thousands of apps available for purchase and download.

Figures from Gartner indicate that Android smartphones will comprise 14% of the market by 2012.

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