What’s in store with Google’s Nexus One?
By Simon Fuller. Mobile shopping. The Nexus One is a name that’ll probably be familiar to anyone with a hint of interest in smartphones. Yes, Google’s first phone handset – and the supposed ‘iPhone killer’ – touched down in the US earlier this month and is set for a spring release in Europe. But while the Nexus One is certainly big news for gadget lovers, will it impact on mobile marketing?
Like any smartphone, the handset certainly packs a hefty range of gadgets and gizmos – voice-enabled keyboard, free SatNav, plus its own range of apps. But will marketers have anything new to play around with?
There’s nothing world-changing from a marketing point of view, reckons Jeff Hasen, CMO at US-based mobile marketers Hipcricket.
“The phone has a nice feature set including a high resolution display, WiFi, Bluetooth, navigation, etc, but these features are not new,” he says. “From our perspective, none of the features on the Nexus One are game changers.”
But Google has done something different in the way that the Nexus One is sold. “The most unique aspect of what Google is doing with the Nexus One smartphone is the introduction of the Google phone store,” Hasen points out.
The Google online phone store, of course, is the only place you can currently get hold of a Nexus One – for a whooping $529 for an unlocked version – as well as explore the smartphone’s key features.
But this is where, at least in the future, the Nexus One may shine. With Google itself doing the selling from its own site, it could be an ideal opportunity for users to engage with the brand.
“It not only eventually will give customers a choice in mobile phone carrier,” explains Hasen. “It [also] creates a storefront and a new way for consumers to interact directly with the company in compelling and sustained ways.”
