Google’s Nexus One – should you care?
by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg on 08/01/10 at 12:31 pm
2 comments
Google and its Taiwanese partner HTC have finally released their new Nexus One smartphone this week. This touch-screen device is Google’s next step in the evolution of its Android software. Unfortunately it looks like this little invention won’t be available in South Africa. The Nexus One is a hot topic this week all around the world but as a South African – should you care?
The Nexus One runs on Android 2.1 includes a voice-enabled keyboard, live wallpapers and a 3D photo gallery. It also comes with a bunch of popular Google applications, including Gmail, Google Voice and Google Maps Navigation. The Nexus One marks Google’s debut in consumer hardware. According to Google “Nexus One is the first in what we expect to be a series of products, which we will bring to market with our operator and hardware partners”.
Google has made it possible to buy the Nexus One on their website, but unfortunately South Africans trying to purchase the phone on the Google website are greeted with the message: “Sorry, the Nexus One phone is not available in your country”.
So for now, only users in the US, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong will be able to order the phone. It will retail for $529 (about R3 800) or as part of a two-year contract. There is however no guarantee that Vodafone or Vodacom will be able to launch the Nexus One in South Africa.
Yolandi Janse van Rensburg writes about social media, marketing, life and, of course, cars. We say “of course” because Yolandi is nuts about anything on 4 wheels and runs Autofemme, a blog about cars. Our Ideate sub-editor is also the Heavy Chef girl at World Wide Creative. You can follow her on Twitter @Yolandi_JvR View more articles by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg.
Tags: Google
Bruce
Jan 11th, 2010
And if you buy it overseas will it work with any of the sim cards locally?
Yolandi
Jan 12th, 2010
Well Bruce, as far as I know you need to order the Nexus One through the ‘Google Phone’ website. Google did however announce that it has an agreement with Vodafone to distribute the Nexus One. Vodacom last week confirmed that Vodafone’s agreement with Google covers all of Vodafone geographies, including South Africa. So until that works out I doubt that you can use any local sim cards. Hopefully we’ll be able to use the phone by end 2010