At an event described by members of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG)'s public relations team both as "seminal" and "anticlimactic," Google on Tuesday introduced its Nexus One mobile phone.

The debut of a Google-branded phone is anticlimactic because so many details about the device have been made public, a sharp contrast with the fanatical message management exercised by Apple, Google's strongest competitor in the mobile space.

At the same time, the Nexus One affirms that mobile computing is where the tech industry is headed and where Google will focus its competitive energy. The war with Microsoft is going well enough that Google can open a second front.

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s reported plan to buy mobile ad firm Quattro Wireless , after Google snapped AdMob away from it, underscores just how important mobile devices, not to mention advertising revenue, have become.

The Nexus One runs Android 2.1 -- available as open source in the next few days -- on a 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU from Qualcomm. It comes with 512MB of ROM, 512MB of RAM, and a 3.7-inch AMOLED 480 x 800 touch screen.

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— Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek