11:00 AM This time with love for the carriers, but only those with the purest of Android phones
11:00 AM -- Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is turning its failed attempt at an online store to sell its Nexus One into a showcase for the growing list of Android phones and the carriers that support them. (See Google Nixes Nexus Web Sales.)
The Google Phone Gallery, which sports the same URL as Google's first store, is aimed at making the phone selection process easier on consumers, who may want to filter by country, manufacturer, carrier, or features. Whereas the first iteration of the store was aimed at circumventing the carriers in the buying process, this one actually embraces them, leaving the final purchase up to them.
It is, however, only for those consumers who want the purest of Google devices.
In introducing the Gallery, Ben Serridge, Android product manager, writes in a blog post that "all the phones in the gallery include Android Market, Google Search, and other Google Mobile services such as Gmail, Maps, and YouTube."
As a result, the site doesn't include the Samsung Corp. Fascinate from Verizon Wireless , which uses Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) Bing for search. Nor does it include the Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) Backflip, which AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) pre-installed with Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) search. Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications is also absent from the list of 22 phones.
More phones will be added to the site, Serridge writes, but you can bet Google won't be embracing the bastard children of its open OS anytime soon.
— Sarah Reedy, Senior Reporter, Light Reading Mobile
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