Google's Nexus One Phone The Next Big Thing For T-Mobile?
An FCC report prepared by SGS Taiwan Ltd. and dated Oct. 2 suggests the HTC-manufactured Nexus One phone has been tested only for 3G UMTS Band IV, which implies T-Mobile's network, not those of AT&T, Verizon or Sprint.
The FCC report, available as a 90-page PDF download here, doesn't make note of tests on any other 3G networks, which might mean Google and HTC have yet to test them, but probably means that T-Mobile -- which released the first Google Android phone, the G1 -- is getting first crack at Nexus One.
If that's the case, it doesn't necessarily steal the Google phone's thunder, it just brings the buzz back down to earth a bit. Initial reports -- none of which Google confirmed, except to note that its employees were getting to play with the Google phone already -- had it that the Nexus One would be released early in the new year, would be manufactured by HTC, would have a touchscreen, would be sold online directly from Google and would be sold unlocked.
The FCC report, pointed out by PC Magazine and other sources, does much to dispel the "unlocked" idea. But the other four pieces of information -- an early 2010 release, a manufacturing partnership with HC, the touchscreen, and sales through Google directly -- still hold water.
Credit Google one thing: it knows how to build the buzz. Ever since Google more or less confirmed the existence of the long-rumored Google phone there's been a flurry of speculation over everything from Google competition with Apple to how the Nexus One phone will either bolster or disrupt the growth of Google's Android mobile OS.
All this, and we still don't really know much about the phone itself, let alone the final details on what it's going to look, feel and sound like. Google has our attention. It threw us the tiniest piece of bait on the Google phone, and we bit down hard: hook, line, sinker.