Google is planning to launch a “mini” version of the Nexus One phone in India that may not have all the features but it would certainly be less-expensive than the US model.
This was revealed by Ankit from CNBC-TV 18 after an “editorial meet” with Google India head Shailesh Rao. Ankit wrote:
Nexus One will not come to India in its US avatar, the India specific Google Phone may be a stripped down version and priced lower!
There’s no talk of pricing but Google is clearly planning to target a bigger market for their smartphone in India. BlackBerry and Nokia phones are favorites among smartphone users in India while Apple iPhone more or less failed here because of the steep price* and partly because it locks you to the cellular operator.
Do you want to buy Google Nexus One now?
Google is only shipping Nexus One phones to US and a couple of other countries but if you are in India and can’t wait to buy one, here are some choices:
- Ask your friend in US to get the “unlocked” version of Nexus One during his upcoming trip. These are standard GSM phones so you can possibly use them with most mobile operators in the country.
- You can buy Nexus One phones from ebay.in for around 37K. I talked to an eBay merchant who is based in Delhi and he said that he can ship a “brand new” Google phone in two days.
- There’s another Indian site called 20north.com that is selling the Google Phone for around 33K. They say they will buy the product from US on your behalf and ship it your address in India. I have never used their service though and calls to the phone numbers listed on their site went unanswered.
A Better Alternative to Nexus One
We don’t know when Google will launch Nexus One in India but there’s another Android device that is remarkably similar to Nexus One – it’s called HTC Desire and it should available in the next quarter.
HTC Desire will have everything that the Google Phone has – the same screen, the same SnapDragon processor and the same Android OS. The only missing piece would be the Google logo at the back.