Google Nexus One Launches On Vodafone

Tom Jowitt,

Google’s answer to the iPhone is finally available to order from Vodafone, and the operator will stock the device from this Friday

Vodafone has finally launched the Google Nexus One on its network, announcing that UK users can pre-order the device from today.

Order Today, Delivery Friday

“UK users can pre-order the device today on the website,” confirmed a Vodafone spokesman, speaking to eWEEK Europe UK. “If they order today the Nexus One will be delivered to customers on Friday 30 April.”

This information differs from Vodafone’s website, which states that the operator will aim to deliver the device by 5 May.

Vodafone would not disclose initial pre-order figures for the device, nor the number of iPhones – the Nexus One’s main rival – it has shipped so far.

UK customers will get the Google handset free of charge, on a two-year £35 monthly price plan. It is also available on an 18-month contract, with price plans starting from £40 a month. These plans include up to 1GB of mobile data as part of the price plan. Customers using Wi-Fi can also use an additional 1GB of data at BT Openzone hotspots throughout the UK.

The Nexus One will ship with the latest Google innovations including Google Maps Navigation (Beta), which offers satnav-style turn-by-turn driving directions with voice output and Street View. Also included are Google Mail, YouTube and access to Android Market with more than 40,000 applications.

Why The Change?

With this news, Vodafone has become the first European mobile operator to offer Nexus One. But this European approach is markedly different from in the United States, where the phone went on sale via its dedicated website from 6 January. Even T-Mobile USA, the Nexus One’s sole US network, does not sell it.

In the United States however, there has been criticism from users over the device’s apparent difficulty in picking up a 3G signal. In February, in response to user complaints, Google said it was adding  a multitouch mechanism and a software fix to improve 3G connectivity.

And Google’s CFO Patrick Pichette recently said that the Nexus One was profitable, as he sought to answer some of the nagging questions about the device. This was not helped in mid-March when mobile analytics firm Flurry said that Google had sold only 135,000 units of the Nexus One  through its first 74 days on the market. This was in comparison to the more than 1 million units of its first generation iPhone that Apple sold during the same time.