Reports: Google's Nexus One Price, ETFs, and Contract Details Leak

From DailyTech: Google phone rumors first started in 2007 when Google was rumored to launch a competitor to iPhone. Instead, it launched the Android OS, a new smartphone operating system. It left much of software design to the vendors, focusing on refining the operating system and a core set of apps. Since Android's initial launch, about a dozen Android handsets have popped up, including the recent Droid phone from Motorola, carried on Verizon Wireless.

Earlier this month, rumors were revived that Google really was finally making a "GPhone". The phone's name was quickly leaked -- the sci-fi-esque designation Nexus One. Google also confirmed that it had given employees a snazzy next generation phone for Christmas (it was these loose lipped employees that originally spilled the beans on Twitter). According to reports, this time around Google personally customized the OS and designed all the basic software bundle for the phone, unlike past Android handsets where it split software responsibilities with its partners. Reportedly, HTC is producing the hardware for the Nexus One handset.

Now more details have been reportedly leaked. Reportedly the phone will be primarily carried in the U.S. by T-Mobile, but also be available in unlocked form for use with other G.S.M. carriers -- in the U.S. that means AT&T can handle the phone as well. According to T-Mobile News' "internal sources" at T-Mobile, the phone will launch on January 5 at 9 a.m. via online orders only.

According to a later report from Gizmodo, the phone will not be sold at-cost as many speculated. Rather than bringing a phone revolution and offering unlocked-only and profit-free handsets, Google instead appears to be opting for a more capitalistic approach, offering the unlocked handset for a tidy sum of $530 and a discounted handsets for $180 with a two year T-Mobile contract.

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