Google's Nexus One phone is tentatively revealed

Finally a phone from Google, eh?

The geniuses at Engadget report that this is the Google Phone — or, as they appear to be calling it, the Nexus One.

I’ve been hearing a lot about this for some time — but only in terms of advanced rumour and conjecture.

My biggest concern with Google is their apparent inability to bring anything to market that is actually ready for consumers to use. I’m talking, of course, about the perennial ‘beta’ labels that populate their technology. This beta policy makes a ton of sense — and I think the majority of geeks like me are thoroughly delighted to see the company make frequent updates to their services.

I wonder, then, how they’re reacting to delivering a physical product that can’t be changed. Oh, you can change the operating system and UI with an upgrade, but you can’t change the buttons or any physical characteristics. I’m really interested to see what they’ve done there.

Engadget reports that the device is actually manufactured by HTC — but with fastidious specification by the Google team.

We shall see.

There are a number of exciting questions posed by the introduction of a Google Phone, not least the cost of the device. Will the average search revenue from a handset enable Google to deeply discount the device? It doesn’t look cheap.

And what SIM card do you put in? Obviously if it’s a directly retailed device, it’ll be unlocked and usable on any GSM carrier. Which begs the question of when we’ll be able to get a SIM with the Google Phone.

Getting carried away for a moment, what would happen if Google put 10 million of these devices into the market across 2010, free. If you could just ‘sign-up’ and — much like the Wave invite plan — get an ‘invite’ to receive a free Google phone?

And how would mobile operators react if Google went to the market and said ‘We need 10 million SIM cards, each with the following service plans activated’?

Would the mobile operators reject the deal, would they offer ridiculous terms? Would they — with the term ‘dumb pipe’ staring them in the face — do a deal with Google quicker than their competitor?

2010 should be a stimulating year.

Meantime I recommend visiting the Engadget site and browsing through their text and their Nexus photos.