Want a Nexus One? So does the rest of the technosphere. But how much will it cost you?

First, Gizmodo got the scoop. Edgadget revealed that they have the full terms of sale.

The Nexus One Might Be the Biggest Android Phone from Google

Feel like reading it? And making sense of it? Yeah, I didn’t think so.  Don’t worry, I did, so you don’t have to. And I have also recently spoken with T-mobile at length about how their plans work.  So here’s the skinny on the total cost of ownership.

It’s sort of a choose your own adventure.

T-Mobile Loyalists

On T-Mobile and want to stay? The adventure has a few hidden costs.

Singleton Without a Contract. If you’re month to month right now, and don’t want to sign a new one, it will cost you $530 for a new phone, plus a $35 one-time conversion fee to convert your account from an account eligible for subsidized handsets to unsubsidized ones.  That’s $565 (plus shipping). Although T-Mobile’s contract-free Everything Plus plans typically run $20 less a month, that would still take over two and a half years to totally earn back the total cost of the phone and the account change, but on the other hand, in 19.25 months you’ve spent as much as the suckers who got the phone for $180 with a two year contract, but you can jump to the next phone.

T-Mobile has Everything Plans that lock you into a contract with a a subsized phone…

Singleton With a Contract. If you don’t have a contract or your T-Mobile contract is about to end, you can simply get the Nexus for $180.  But you will be stuck with that phone when the next great thing comes out or you’ll pay early termination fees.

Family Men & Women. Will have to either separate their accounts (meaning, giving up family plans) and then sign up for singleton accounts with the pricing above, or will have to buy each phone for $530 (plus shipping) ithout a subsidy.  This, to me, looks like a great way for T-Mobile to get everyone on singleton plans slowly but surely with each great new smart phone. Not so great for the consumer, depending on your family plan.

iPhone Owners / AT&T Sufferers

If you have an iPhone or you’re on AT&T and you want to switch, you fall into one of three groups:

Can I Haz Nexus On AT&T? You’re in luck! It will cost you $530 (plus shipping).  Oh, and you won’t be able to use 3G because the T-Mobile version of 3G isn’t compatible with AT&T.  But you can use EDGE, which is slower but might be OK.

Escape AT&T, Get Shackled to T-Mobile. Good news! You will have a $175 early termination fee from AT&T, and the then you will need to pay $180 to T-Mobile. That’s $175 +180 = $350 (plus shipping). Getting 3G service and calls that don’t drop constantly? Priceless.

Note: Deduct $5 for every month of your contract you’ve completed. One year? Subtract $60 for $290 (plus shipping). Only served six months? Then it’s $325 (plus shipping).

Escape AT&T, Stay Free. Fantastic! Pay your early termination fee plus the the $530 for a total between $650-$705 (plus shipping). But you won’t have a contract with T-mobile, so you can always change your mind and buy an Xperia X10 a few months later and stay with AT&T.

Droid Does! (Cost More to Terminate). Verizon recently raised their early termination fees to $350, but if you bought a Droid the first weekend, you can escape the high priced CDMA world for just $175.

What If You Don’t LIke it?

Restocking Sticker Shock

In California, you have 30 days to return your phone and renege on your plan (other states have 14 days).  So if you’re leaving one carrier for another, you might want to see if you can put a hold on your account before you pay termination fees.

But Google is gonna get you here.  It’s $45 to restock a phone. Plus the inconvenience. And that blue tooth headset? Or extra battery? A whopping $15 to restock those.  Although it’s clear whether it’s $15 for each accessory or $15 for a bundle of accessories, the accessories are a separate restocking fee from the phone restocking fee.

What if you get an engraved Nexus One? Sorry. It’s yours for life.

If you purchase a subsidized phone, then Google will want the subsidy back ($350) — and you may still owe your carrier a termination fee. That’s currently $200 for T-Mobile and $175 for AT&T.

What If I Don’t Get It?

Although you can’t return an engraved Nexus One, it looks as though if you order a Nexus One and don’t receive it, you’ll be charged $90.  Plus shipping.  Maybe they mean if you order a phone and pay for it and never activate it.

Is It Worth It?

I crunched the numbers, but the numbers are speculative right now. The document looks like it was printed from a non Chrome browser on a Mac on December 8th. In one spot the document says, see http://www.Example.com and in another spot it starts with the http:// and leaves out an address.  Whether these were redacted or just incomplete or out of date or simply made up is anyone’s guess.

The language looks real to me, as a non-lawyer who’s worked with lots of lawyers, and it includes all sorts of provisions. So I suspect it was real, at some point.

I’m a little concerned that there is only one plan, that it’s for 500 minutes, and that there’s a data plan called Android Unlimited. I have a BlackBerry right now and it costs me $20 a month for unlimited data and I pay $14 for unlimited texting.  The plan looks better on the surface, but when I figure that I could use unlimited data and Google Voice for free SMS, it doesn’t seem that great of a deal anymore.

Nevertheless, I like T-Mobile and all my dear friends with iPhones love their phone but hate AT&T. I don’t have a contract myself, so I’m seriously considering the potential cost benefits of lower monthly bills for two lines and a better handset.

When all is said and done, T-Mobile is simply less expensive than the other carriers, and I expect that to remain the same with the Nexus One.

Why Google Might Suck As A Phone Seller

The restocking fee really makes me cranky.

Here’s why:

A guy I know went to the Android OS a few months ago, and he worked his way through a few available phones from T-Mobile.  He got a BlackBerry Bold and didn’t like it.  He got a G1 and didn’t like it.  He tried the Cliq.  And then he got the myTouch 3G and fell in love.  T-Mobile happily took back each phone in the store, didn’t give him any grief, and now he has the phone that makes him happy.

If I buy a Nexus One and then decide I’d like an Xperia X10 instead, it will cost me $45-$80 — just to try it out, depending on whether I get accessories and how expensive two-way shipping is.

This is the part I’m hoping Google changes.  Google should take a tip from its nemesis in the eBook wars, Amazon.  Amazon makes it really easy to return items without going broke on paying for shipping in both directions.  And they seem to be gentle on restocking costs in my experience.  If the terms of the purchase are accurate and close to up to date, Google is laying down the law: they do the software, HTC does the hardware, the carrier does your plan. This is great and good on many levels, but return policies coordinated amongst three companies sounds slightly nightmarish and harder to “do no evil.”

UPDATE: Addition charges that may apply for international purchases.

photo credit: jyri

photo credit: SimonDoggett

Reading an article about up front costs of cell phones vs. subsidies, I found this smile worthy:

Yeah, sure, the iPhone is great, but is it $1,200 better than a Sprint phone? Really? Do you want an iPhone, or an HTC Hero and a 50-inch plasma TV?

Would you spend thousands of dollars on an iPhone app just to get free media coverage for your old fashioned business?

Me neither!

In the “file under duh,” I read this Ad Age article and wrote this comment this morning:

This article strikes me as very weird.

The conclusion is that designing, launching, and maintaining an application for the iPhone doesn’t result in a lot of free media coverage. In other words, an iPhone app won’t save money on ad buy

Who cares?

The purpose of an app isn’t to get free media coverage, but to deepen existing customer relationships. If you are a Dunkin’ Donuts customer and you can easily let people know when you’re doing a run, and as a result, everyone in your office starts piggy-backing on your order when they can’t escape, there’s no measurable media gain. It’s a point of sales gain. It’s relationship deepening because someone who was going to buy a little coffee, is now buying more.

The companies that most likely <b>do</b> gain a lot online media coverage from iPhone apps are social media companies like FaceBook, LinkedIn, and MySpace — provided that the apps are good. But still, in those cases the app isn’t designed as a free media strategy, but as a relationship building strategy. I realize this article is looking at easily accessible online ephemera for gauging the results of an app release, but the entire focus doesn’t really tell us anything we couldn’t have figured out from the premise itself.

I’m not a big fan of articles searching for a problem or quandary that doesn’t exist.

photo credit: William Hook