By Google will shut down the Nexus One phone store soon enough, but the push for their Android handset is far from over. The N1 is coming to France’s SFR (a division of Vodafone), and can be ordered now from their website. On a 12-month contract you can expect to pay 129 euros for the phone, or you can choose to pay 419 euros on a pay as you go deal to get the same Nexus One that was shipping out from Google’s online store, free of any bloatware and ready for a SIM card from any compatible network.
The phone will be in SFR stores starting May 25th, and AndroidGuys is reporting that the carrier has a 6-month exclusive on the phone in France.
[via AndroidGuys]
They haven’t yet shut down the online phone store y’know… They’ve announced plans to do so, probably once they’ve got B&M retail partners lined up, but for the time being it remains open and you can still buy the N1 with subsidy from T-Mo or at full price with AT&T bands. First line of the article makes it sound like that’s no longer the case. Somehow I doubt Nexus One supply will dry up before Froyo hits… ;)
Lets hope that Google makes a lot of money from this phone, then we will see a Nexus 2.
Any word on a release date for the Netherlands? I still can’t buy it over here.
I keep hoping to see the Nexus One or a phone of equal caliber from T-Mobile US. The more I think about it the more I’m leaning to buying my next phone outright and not extend my contract like I did with my G1.
:-D
You won’t regret it…it’s a great Android device..go get one!!
HTC Desire is better (sold in France from april) !
Considering software updates for HTC Desire depends on HTC (Sense), I bet Nexus One is a better choice.
Android 2.2 is coming, I doubt that HTC updates Sense as fast as the update will be available for Nexus One.
The only advantage of Desire is hard buttons.
(And HTC Keyboard, but it’s usable on Nexus – Thanks xda :))
By the way, SFR is not a division of Vodafone, shares are splited as 54% for Vivendi and 46% for SFR. So there is a gap of 54% aka the majority of the share to bring it to a “division” … you could see it as a “join-venture” although from it’s history it was not build this way.
FYI, SFR is now the second telecom operator in France after France Telecom (aka Orange), and the gaining the more customers.
By the way, the N1 is nice, but the inovation pace is so strong on Androphones that it aloready look a bit outdated.
This is a point that Google have to address on their own phones. You can not expect partners such as HTC to give you “all the latest innovation” much in advance, when they sold handset by themselves. It would be like suicide.
That is the reason, Apple is looking for vertical concentration for their product to raise inovation level and make sure the premium applied on their product can find some justification.