Today the new Google/HTC phone, Nexus One, was announced. It is currently available for T-Mobile customers and will be released sometime this year for Verizon customers. There’s a lot of hype behind this phone. It’s fast, will be supporting Flash soon, and is the best android phone out there.
The Google/HTC Nexus One
But what’s the catch? Here it is: the pricing. The Nexus One is available for new T-Mobile customers for only $179 and a two year contract. It will be $279 for existing customers upgrading to a data plan and $379 for existing customers who are upgrading and already have a data plan.
Does that seem a bit wrong? It seems that T-Mobile wanted the phone on their service so badly that they gave up the right to dictate the subsidized pricing and left it all up to HTC. Seeing how HTC won’t have to deal with the Nexus One customers on a regular basis, they’ve left it up to T-Mobile to handle the masses of customers that will be complaining. And they will be complaining.
Most believe, including myself, that anyone extending a contract out another two years should be available for the $179 price point. HTC doesn’t seem to think so. It would be like AT&T allowing Apple to dictate what the price of the iPhone is. But AT&T sets the subsidized price on the iPhone ($599 for a full retail priced 16GB iPhone 3GS, $199 with a 2 year contract). T-Mobile seems to have gotten this backwards.
I was looking forward to the Nexus One, but now it seems like I may not get one. I’ll have to have a chat with a T-Mobile representative to see if there’s anything existing customers can do to avoid being screwed by HTC. If anyone can find a way around the $279 price point (as I’ll be adding a data plan), let me know. The last thing I want is for HTC to get exactly what they want.
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