Hasta La Gadget!

After Google shut down web sales of the Nexus One earlier this month, the company is moving swiftly to seed retail stores with the HTC-designed smartphone.

I wireless, a T-mobile affiliate will sell the Nexus One at its 250 stores mostly in the Midwest. But in stores, the Nexus One will be pretty pricey. The device is expected to be available for $300, after a $50 mail-in rebate, and with a T-Mobile contract. That is higher than the $180 Google had priced the Nexus One at in its web store.

It’s the price that Google and customers must pay for the privilege of getting their hands on Nexus One before committing to buy the device.

Google introduced the HTC-designed Nexus One in January as a phone that would initially be available on T-Mobile’s network. But instead of being sold through T-Mobile stores, the search giant said it would sell Nexus Ones through its web site and handle customer support itself.

Though innovative and clever, the strategy didn’t resonate with consumers. Nexus One’s online store failed to catch on. Potential customers found they just couldn’t find a Nexus One in the real-world to play with, unless they knew a friend who already had the device.

“While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not,” wrote Andy Rubin, vice-president of engineering and Android czar at Google in a blog post. “It’s remained a niche channel for early adopters.”

The idea also gave rise to customer service complaints early on in the device’s life. Customers complained about the poor tech support from Google–the company didn’t offer a telephone help line for weeks, instead asking people to send in e-mails.

Now Google seems to be taking the first steps towards getting Nexus Ones to stores. The high price tag on the device at retail, though, dampens our enthusiasm. But if Google can strike deals with Best Buy or other big electronics retail chains, it could offer the Nexus One in store for the same price as it was on the web.

See Also:

• Google Debuts Android-Powered Nexus One ‘Superphone’
• Wired Review: Google Nexus One
• Google Nexus One Sales Still Sluggish, Says Analytics Firm
• Google Fails With Web Store Experiment for Nexus One

Photo: (Johncatral/Flickr)

After taking a look at this launch deck for T-Mobile’s myTouch 3G Slide, it’s becoming more obvious than ever that T-Mobile is taking the myTouch brand very seriously — it’s not just about a product, it’s about an ongoing line of devices that all prescribe to the same socially-connected principles. In fact, with the effective loss of Sidekick to Verizon now that the ex-Danger team has thrown its weight behind Kin, you might even argue that the myTouch line is being positioned to take over where Sidekick left off, and that’s evidenced when you see that they’re referring to myTouch as a “franchise” throughout these slides. Follow the break for some of the highlights!

Continue reading T-Mobile slide deck chats up myTouch 3G Slide’s June 2 launch

T-Mobile slide deck chats up myTouch 3G Slide’s June 2 launch originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 26 May 2010 12:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No matter how much T-Mobile wants to pretend, HSPA+ is not on the same upload / download pay grade as LTE and WiMAX. Still, that isn’t stopping the company from calling its new technology rollout “4G speeds,” much to the dismay of another major HSPA+ supporter, AT&T. Cue Ma Bell spokesman Seth Bloom, who recently told Fierce Wireless, “I think that companies need to be careful that they’re not misleading customers by labeling HSPA+ as a 4G technology.” Of course, AT&T itself is rolling out that technology as an intermediate step between current 3G and LTE, and we know they want to reserve the 4G nomenclature for the latter’s unveiling. Hey guys, can we just label it 3.95G and call it day?

AT&T cries foul over T-Mobile’s ‘HSPA+ is 4G’ talk originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 May 2010 20:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is anyone safe from the wrath of Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization? It’s looking unlikely, with the company expanding its patent lawsuit furor to cover three more major players: AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile. These three are the latest cherry-picked to be on the receiving end of CSIRO’s mighty 802.11a/g patent hammer. Companies like Dell, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony all chose to settle rather than challenge this patent bully, giving it the encouragement (and cash) to bring the fight to these three new players, apparently named simply because they sold WiFi devices. Sadly, there are more to come according to Executive Director Niger Poole:

I’m not going to be exposing what the legal strategy is to a journalist. There’s a legal strategy here that has been thought through very carefully and to a lay person it looks like a pincer movement. You’ve got court action against upstream chip makers and you’ve got court action against downstream carriers.

Ever pass on an old WiFi-equipped gadget on eBay or gave it to a friend in exchange for a case of beer? Lord Humongous is coming for you next.

[Thanks, Chris]

CSIRO’s patent fight targets more victims: AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 May 2010 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So T-Mobile’s myTouch 3G Slide — the QWERTY-enabled version of the venerable myTouch 3G — has been priced and dated, and we’re happy to see that “expected to be available in June” has turned out to mean the very beginning of the month; June 2, to be exact, in your choice of red, white, or black. What makes us less happy, though, is the notion of paying $179.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate for an Android device that now has the unenviable job of lying in the massive shadow created by the brilliant EVO 4G. Granted, the two phones are for very different carriers, but that doesn’t really excuse T-Mobile from offering up a phone with a lower-class processor, 40 percent of the screen resolution, and three megapixels lopped off the camera for just $30 less upfront, does it? Time for some serious price correction across the smartphone landscape, wethinks.

T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide coming June 2 for $180 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 11:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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