Google tackles smart phone industry with its own model

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google
on Tuesday unveiled its much-anticipated “superphone,” calling it the
next step in the rapid evolution of its Android mobile platform and
promoting a series of features that present a direct challenge to Apple’s iPhone.

“It pushes the limits of what’s possible on a mobile phone today,” said Peter Chou, the head of HTC, the Taiwan-based manufacturer of the new phone, as he held up the sleek phone for reporters at a packed announcement Tuesday morning in Mountain View, Calif.

Google will sell the phone unlocked for $529 in the U.S. starting Tuesday. The phones will ship Tuesday from Google’s Web store at www.google.com/phone. Phones with service through T-Mobile cost $179, and Google expects other manufacturers to ship versions later in the year.

No thicker than a No. 2 pencil and with the weight of a Swiss Army keychain knife, “it’s a great marriage of form and function,” said Google engineer Erick Tseng. “It’s basically a minicomputer in your pocket.”

The device will have a speedy 1-gigahertz processor
and a track ball under a large, 3.7-inch screen. It will run Android
2.1, which includes incremental improvements over Android 2.0, the
software that runs on Motorola’s Droid, the most recent major Android phone to hit the market.

The Nexus One will includes features such as
animated 3-D “live wallpaper,” faster search capability and enhanced
voice features that will allow people to speak map queries, e-mail and Facebook updates.

Google did its
best to inflame media interest in the new phone, sparking a buzz when
it distributed prototypes to its employees in December, and rationing
access to Tuesday’s announcement in Mountain View, to one journalist per organization — even limiting access to a private Web broadcast of the event.

More than 100 news organizations, from the U.S. and abroad, attended the unveiling of the new phone.

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