droidStory

Google quietly announced that it will discontinue the direct sale of its Nexus One phone.

This week we received our last shipment of Nexus One phones. Once we sell these devices, the Nexus One will no longer be available online from Google. Customer support will still be available for current Nexus One customers. And Nexus One will continue to be sold by partners including Vodafone in Europe, KT in Korea, and possibly others based on local market conditions.

To ensure our developers have access to a phone with the latest Android OS, Google will be offering the Nexus One through a partner for sale to registered developers. Visit the Android Market Publisher site and log into your developer account to purchase a Nexus One.

This officially marks the end of the N1 experiment.  There are many opinions why this experiment failed. Google has certainly learned a lot about the complexity of the US wireless market and retail operations in general. The N1 offered a glimpse at carrier independence, with unrestricted software access and real-time Android updates. The 3G reception problems and the resulting finger-pointing between HTC, T-Mobile and Google highlighted the inherent problems with this direct sales model.

I believe, that the US wireless market with its carrier specific 3G data frequencies and incompatible wireless network technologies is a key reason for the failure of the N1, and Google’s direct sales model. Why buy an expensive phone without contract subsidy, if you can’t switch wireless providers because the phone wont work on another carriers network?

As it turns out FRF83 still wasn’t the final release build of Android 2.2 (Froyo).  Google has now announced the official availability of Android 2.2 on the NexusOne blog.

Starting today, Nexus One users will begin to receive the Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) over-the-air software update on their phones. This update provides some great new features including support for making your handset a portable hotspot and support for Adobe Flash within the browser.

If you can’t wait for the OTA update, you can get the latest FRF85B build directly from Google FRF91 build directly from Google and use the upgrade instructions found in some of the previous posts.

Verizon and Motorola, with help from Google and Adobe unveiled the new Motorola DroidX today.

The phone will go on sale on July 15th for $199, after $100 rebate with a 2 year contract. Anybody with a contract ending in 2010 can upgrade!

• $29.99/month smartphone unlimited data plan
• $20/month for tethering (WiFi & USB) for up-to 2GB of data, 5cents/MByte overage fee

Specs:

• 1GHz TI OMAP CPU
• 512MB RAM, 8GB internal flash memory
• 16GB SD card included, expandable to 32GB
• 8MP Camera, dual LED flash
• 4.3″ Display, 854 x 480, 400,000+ pixels
• 1570mAh battery
• HDMI out port
• 3 microphones (one noise-canceling)
• Ships with Android 2.1 including new version of MotoBlur
• Android 2.2 (Froyo) will be released this summer

Motorola and Verizon are going to unveil their latest Droid’s at this invitation only press event, which starts at 1PM EDT.  MobileCrunch is live-blogging.

Verizon made the Motorola Droidx official by launching this teaser site yesterday. This sure is going to be an amazing phone given its gigantic 4.3″ screen, 720p video capture and 8MP camera. I wonder how long the battery will last though…

Update: Here’s the first Droidx commercial from the VerizonWireless YouTube channel.

In case you have not noticed, Verizon is taking pre-orders for the Droid Incredible online since yesterday. To get you further hyped-up, Verizon also published this product video featuring “incredibly” enthused Products Specialist – Derek.