Google to release new smartphone with "Android" software

Google Inc. unveiled a new smartphone, developed with Samsung Electronics Co., along with a new version of its Android software as the Internet giant continues an assault on Apple Inc.'s iPhone.
The move follows Google's short-lived effort to market a handset called the Nexus One, which was released in January and discontinued in the summer.
The new model, the Nexus S, will be introduced in the U.S. in mid-December and sold exclusively at Best Buy Co. retail stores and on Best Buy's website. It will cost $199 with a two-year T-Mobile USA contract, and be sold for $529 without a service contract.
Google is shifting strategies it used with the Nexus One, which was only sold directly to consumers through a Google Web store in a bid to side-step the traditional model of sales through carriers.
Some executives at wireless carriers said the Nexus One didn't sell well and Google closed its Web store a few months ago.
Google Vice President Andy Rubin, who leads the Android team, has said more than 100,000 Nexus One units were sold in three months and that it inspired other handset makers to build other Android devices that have sold well.

The Nexus S will feature front- and rear-facing cameras so users can make video calls, similar to the iPhone. It also includes technology that could help people make payments with their devices when they're on the go.
Google, in a blog post, said the new Android software that will power the Nexus S, known as Gingerbread, includes support for so-called near field communications technology. Such technology can enable third-party developers to create mobile payment applications so users could use their phones as digital wallets.
The company also said the Nexus S is the first smartphone to feature a four-inch contoured display, designed to better fit the palm of the hand and the side of user's face.
Google licenses the Android software free to hardware makers such as Samsung. The company won't make any money from direct sales of the Nexus S, a Google spokesman said.
But the Nexus S, which joins dozens of other Android devices made by numerous manufacturers, could help boost awareness and demand for Android-powered phones, while spurring other companies to develop new handsets that exploit the software, said Charles Golvin, a mobile analyst at Forrester Research.
"If all the innovation is left to the folks who make the networks or devices, we don't get a whole lot of innovation," he said.
Android is designed to ensure that Google's Internet search, maps and other services will be a mainstay on mobile devices. The company sells ads alongside its Internet search results and helps place ads within mobile-device applications such as game. Two months ago Google executives said the company was on track to generate $1 billion annually in mobile-related revenue.
Android, the No. 3 mobile operating system in the U.S. as of October, is quickly gaining on Apple and Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry, according to research firm comScore Inc.
Very few phones are sold in the U.S. without contracts. But those who buy the Nexus S without a service contract can insert SIM cards from carriers that operate on the so-called GSM network, including AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG.
The phone won't work with carriers that use a different cellular technology, including Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. A Google spokesman wouldn't comment on whether other carriers are considering offering the phone with a contract.
The Nexus phone will be marketed to consumers as "the new Android phone from Google" and Samsung will handle customer support, according to the Google spokesman. Samsung also makes the Galaxy Tab, a rival to Apple's iPad tablet.