Manufactured by HTC, maker of other Android phones (G1, MyTouch 3G, Hero), the Nexus One is a nice addition to the consumer line-up of Android smartphones, but doesn’t have the business users at heart due to the lack of a physical keyboard.
But Google is planning to address this issue with the next version of the Nexus One (Nexus Two?), which will feature a hardware keyboard. The Google exec, who was behind the creation of the Android OS, didn’t give any other details in his interview with Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg.
The news comes hot off the heels of Google’s announcement of the Nexus One earlier this week, which rippled through the smartphone industry. Google has previously stated that it won’t make phones, but instead chose HTC to manufacture the Nexus One under their brand and then sell it with or without a contract through their website.
Google hopes to solidify the position of the Android OS on the market through a sleeve of devices running the OS, including its own Nexus One. In recent months, Motorola made headlines when it launched the previous flagship device of the Android platform, the Droid (sold on Verizon).
Unlike the Droid, the Nexus One features a newer version of the Android OS (2.1) and a much speedier processor (1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon), but the Droid holds an advantage over the Nexus One with its (average) physical keyboard.
Motorola might not have been happy about Google launching their own Android smartphone, but now they have even more reasons to worry, as a keyboard-touting Nexus is on the way. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion could have reasons to worry as well, though the company still dominates the enterprise cellphone market.
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