Google Grants Nexus One New Upgrade Subsidy

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Google has sold just around $20,000 Nexus One phones in its opening week. We expected a lot more phones to be sold, didn’t we? The number might have been affected by the unexpected 3G issues as well as by the prices asked by Google and T-Mobile for the handset.

As you recall, Google and T-Mobile charged differently their customers. Those people that didn’t want a new contract had to pay $529 for the off contract version of the phone. New customers were qualifying for the $179 price when signing a new two-year agreement and thus they were getting the full subsidy.

And customers that were upgrading their phones had to pay either $279, in case they didn’t have any data plans, or $379, in case they did. As you expect, a lot of people have considered upgrading to the Nexus One but not everyone acted on that first impulse.

Maybe now it’s a good time to rethink everything as Google and T-Mobile are changing their upgrade subsidy policy. Everyone that’s ready to upgrade to the Nexus One, regardless of their current data plans, will only have to pay $279 for the device. That’s great news but I have more. Those of you that have already paid $379 for the handset are entitled to receiving a $100 refund from Google. Well isn’t that nice?

Is Google trying to sell more Nexus One phones? Is it trying to improve its image after the whole 3G support issue with the device? Whatever its reasons are, I know that some people will be happy to pay less for the handset.

Those of you that are not exactly to upgrade yet should wait a little while longer as MWC is only a month away. And, from what we’ve seen these last couple of months, one thing is certain: Android will be a hot topic at MWC 2010 and we expect various manufacturers to showcase new Android handsets soon. Some of these phones might be even better than the Nexus One but we’ll tell you all about them in a few weeks.