For a Few Dollars Less
The Google Phone is officially no longer vaporware.
At the press conference which showed off the phone, the most important pieces of the phone were announced, its pricing. The price of the phone will be $179, a few dollars less than the $199 iPhone from AT&T. The data plan is also a little less. For unlimited Internet and and limited messaging, T-Mobile will charge $25/month, a few dollars less than AT&T’s unlimited plan at $30.
It seems unlikely that anyone who has enough money to by an iPhone or a Google phone would really notice a few dollars difference. After all, the difference is on the order of a latte or two.
The key difference between the phones at this stage seem to be the programs that third party developers will build for the Google phone and its extremely open platform. Does anyone else think that it is a little strange that the success of Google’s mobile phone will depend on small third party software developers? Maybe Google should just hire a team of the most creative of them and be done with it.