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.
[*] The 16 GB version of iPhone 3G (not iPhone 3GS) costs around $800 in India and on top of that, you need to pay a $20 monthly rental and around $1.2 for every 10 MB of data transfer -- the cellular operators in India do not offer unlimited data plans for iPhone though they do have such plans for BlackBerry.
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Reader Comments
Waiting for an Indian company to make it as big as Apple so that one day America will have to wait for a year to get those gadgets. Its over a year and no iphone 3GS launch in India, 40K plus phone India’s paying the highest to get the latest Tech, I wonder when this will change. Nice to see Google making that change.
I hope Adam is sweetly price for Indian buyers.. what say
Written by Inventiveeye on 03.04.10
Everytime one of my people ask me to bring a super posh smart phone when coming to India,I ask them back only one question.
What is the use of investing in it when India don’t have 3G service.
Forget Nexus one I can’t get my head around why anyone in India bother to buy smart phones when all you CAN DO is only speak and message.any Rs.2k-5k chip can do that job.
Written by Pavan on 03.04.10
I own a first generation iPhone and the only reason I’m looking to upgrade is so that I can get the newer features that the Nexus One provides. The iPhone 3GS doesn’t hold enough appeal to me. If Google is going to strip down the features, I might as well get the 3GS, atleast I’ll get the same phone that is sold in the US and not some stripped down version.
Or I’ll just wait for the HTC Desire. The google logo isn’t really all that important anyway.
Written by Sharninder on 03.04.10
price of HTC Desire , here?
Written by karthik on 03.04.10
WTF? I’m certainly not going to buy a stripped down version of the nexus one. I’ll just wait for the HTC desire to launch here and buy that instead.
Written by Murali on 03.04.10
gr8 news ..some local dealers are selling on classifieds sites too like olx i saw i listing in hyderabad section of that site … but price is 37 to 40 k
Written by Heeren on 03.04.10
Apple had been stupid enough to underestimate Indian market by not revealing 3GS, and still marking 3G sky high.
Google endeavors to go worse. I hate it.
Just like every other time, we’ll have to import all gadgets on our own.
@google @Apple India is NOT poor, demand for gadgets is BIG but you guys are lame at estimating India’s potential by watching a stupid movie called “Slum dog”.
Live in india/delhi for a month, you`ll get to know our lavish interests.
Written by Taranfx on 03.05.10
The HTC Desire has an optical track pad as opposed to N1′s trackball
Written by Rom on 03.07.10