Google’s new Nexus One phone has been all over the news today, but the news for Aussies isn’t all that good: you can’t buy the phone direct from Google right now, and the only commitment the Big G will make to a release date is “soon”.
If you hit the official Nexus One site and try to order the phone, you soon get a message proclaiming:
We are not currently able to ship to your country. If you wish to continue with your order you must specify a shipping address in Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom, or the United States.
Nick over at Gizmodo asked Google directly for release plan information, and essentially got told “soon, but we won’t say one”. Sure, you can import the phone — and eBay’s bound to be full of them shortly — but it still feels like another Kindle/iPhone/NameYourGadgetHere dismissal of the Australian market.
Aussie Nexus One Hopefully Coming, No Timeframe Yet [Gizmodo]
Chris Jones
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 12:19 PMThat’s not so bad, if the iPhone and the Kindle are anything to go by. Maybe all the bugs from the first release will have been fixed by the time it gets here.
Blaze
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 12:30 PMOr perhaps it’s time to combine a couple of the news items.
For example:
Google Nexus One + comGateway Allows Consolidated US Shopping = Win
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2010/01/comgateway-allows-consolidated-us-shopping/
Craig
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 1:48 PMTo get a Nexus One phone, don’t hold your breath. If any experience to go off, you need to wait a minimum of six months, if your lucky to see Nexus One on sale here. And if the Nexus One goes on sale, you will pay a premium price, $300 more then what it costs in the States or England.
Ben
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 5:22 AMDon’t feel too bad. From this year all UK imports including this Google Nexus One are liable for 17.5% VAT on all overseas shipping, including shipping and insurance. Then there is potentially a further 6% levy for duty. Makes ordering this phone from the UK at around $740 AUD which is significantly more expensive than the USA.
Daniel
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 2:21 PMOf course one of the other problems still remains that Optus users at least (but not Telstra or 3) can -not- access the paid android market as well as waiting 3-4 months for OS updates
Kristian Harper
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 2:23 PMWhat does HTC have against 850Mhz handsets? Everyone else seems to cope fine with it.
Andrew
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 3:06 PMWhat is to stop you buying a US one and putting an Australian sim into it? Buy off eBay or get a friend in the US to buy one. Should still work on the Optus network.
Glenn
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 5:37 PM“What is to stop you buying a US one and putting an Australian sim into it?”
Not much… It woeks in Theory, but the kicker is that the firmware is unlikely to be updated for Australian Regs, so Triple Zero may not work as expected…
Phones released in Australia typically have their firmware tweaked (just a registry setting usually) so that they conform to the Australian rules regarding Emergency calls. A phone sourced from overseas will likely have that set to another country, not Australia…
Triple Zero calls in Australia need to work regardless of the SIM card stats, credit etc. Also if you’re out of range of your own carrier, others have to carry it. (The phones mark the calls as an emergency class to achieve this.) The phone may not mark “000″ as an emergency call until the firmware is tweaked/set for Australia.
Nexus 1 will likely have a firmware that confirms to the regs, just when getting it from overseas, that bit will be turned off…
Regan
Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 4:27 PMDial 112… it works on all phones regardless of country.
Kristian Harper
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 7:43 PMOptus have enough trouble with iPhone traffic on their networks without adding Android to the mix.
Ash mcalister
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 2:19 AMGet ready for the highest reports of stolen phones. The nexus is nearly like open source, meaning cracks, hacks and mods will be plentyful. The hackers dream phone
Louis Thorp
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 2:24 AMWas so hoping this would come straight down under! i would have bought one today.. oh well like usual we wait…
StevoTheDevo
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 8:24 AMIt’ll be interesting to see what sort of subsidies Australian Carriers provide (If they ever do)..
My next phone looks like it will be an Android model (around July), iPhone doesn’t even rate in my deliberations solely because it doesn’t support 900MHz 3G.
Rob
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 1:54 PMhttp://www.mobicity.com.au say the are shipping in Australia – http://www.mobicity.com.au/google-nexus-one.html
Andrew
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 7:08 PMGood on them.
But, um, AU$999? For something you can buy outright for US$579? $356 extra? That is insane.
EJ
Friday, January 8, 2010 at 10:10 AMyou can get one here already at mobicity.com.au – it costs more than the US version but you get local warranty and support.
Jimmy
Saturday, January 9, 2010 at 8:56 AMHas anyone tried using a forwarding company like Ship2Me (www.ship2me.com) to buy this phone? It seems like it will work here downunder, just a question of physically getting one from the states.
Mike R
Monday, January 11, 2010 at 6:50 PMIf someone were to purchase the Nexus in the UK will it work in Australia?
astrogirl
Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 7:30 PMNo doubt waiting to sign a partnership with telstra who will lock them all into two year contracts with high usage fees – for the same price if not more than an iphone. /pessimism
calvinium
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 1:40 PMI’ve heard that the reason for the delay is due to the fact the phones DON’T work on Telstra’s network yet, and that Google want to support all networks to avoid restricting peoples choice of telco
Maldrat
Friday, January 15, 2010 at 2:36 PMI blame the Australians. Having worked in the mobile phone industry, I can understand why these companies would hesitate to release new technology in this country. Australians are late adopters. They are anything but tech savvy. They simply can’t get rid of the “don’t fix it if it aint broke” mentality. No one wants the latest and the greatest. My only hope is on the young Asian population in Australia.
Chris
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 7:06 PM@Maldrat
Nah, we Aussies are actually extremely tech savvy and love to get our hands on the latest and greatest.
Several problems though.
One is that most decent tech doesn’t make it here, we get what other countries don’t want.
Or we have to wait months, years, or are reduced to importing and hacking any gear we want.
Then there’s the extremely high prices on tech here. Well, on everything it seems, but tech gets hit pretty hard.
What’s the bet that Aus will be the last to receive the Nexus One, and that it will be hugely expensive. =P
Blame the country for the late adoption, not the people.
nk
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 1:50 AMI’m currently visiting Hong Kong and hope to buy one and bring it back to Australia, Hoping it works on the ’3′ 3G Network. Anyone tried bringing it to Australia yet?
JJ
Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 1:48 PMplenty of people are importing them, they work fine on all australian 3g networks. cheapest is $630 total with comgateway as the forwarder, see here for info http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/?tag=Google_Phone
Marcus
Monday, February 15, 2010 at 5:01 PMso…. for the peeps who buy from overseas to use on australian networks… they just have an existing phone contract and replace old handeset with new? most phone contracts come with handsets factored into the plan (say… monthly handset repayments or sometimes even free handsets).