Called the Nexus One, Google will unveil the handset at its Silicon Valley headquarters in America tomorrow, and the device is set to go on sale there from January 12. A UK launch date has not yet been announced, but it is likely to follow early this year.

As increasing numbers of people are using their mobile phones to access the internet, Google has already launched its own mobile phone operating system, called Android, that works on a range of devices. However the Nexus One will be the first handset that the company has designed itself.

Like the iPhone, Android offers fully integrated web-browsing, music and video playing and a large library of applications that users can choose to install to add to their phone’s capabilities. One of the services likely to be available for the first time in America is European-based music service Spotify, which challenges Apple’s iTunes.

The Nexus One has been built by manufacturer HTC, and is rumoured toinclude a larger screen and better camera than those featured on the iPhone. It also offers free satnav capabilities, which are only available for an additional charge on the iPhone.

The handset is likely to cost consumers $179.99 (￡111) on a contract with T-Mobile, but will also be available for $529.99 (￡324) without any contract tying users to a specific network.

Google’s announcement is timed to challenge the dominance of the world’s largest technology fair, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which takes place this week, and to overshadow Apple’s launch of a tablet computer, which is expected on January 26.

The name Nexus One is a reference to the film Blade Runner, which is reported to have led to the estate of author Philip K Dick threatening to sue Google.

中文相關(guān)報道（節(jié)選自搜狐IT頻道）

據(jù)國外媒體報道，谷歌將于今日推出第一款自有品牌智能手機(jī)Nexus One。據(jù)悉，這款手機(jī)由臺灣宏達(dá)國際電子股份有限公司(HTC)代工。

有媒體披露，Nexus One將采用Android 2.1版操作系統(tǒng)。同iPhone一樣使用觸摸屏，但屏幕比iPhone稍大，還具有可換電池和增加存儲卡的選擇，并擁有一枚500萬像素的攝像頭和可供 Wi-Fi連接的設(shè)備。用戶能夠通過Nexus One訪問網(wǎng)頁、玩視頻游戲、使用谷歌提供的免費GPS導(dǎo)航軟件，還可以通過語音命令搜索網(wǎng)絡(luò)，該設(shè)備的有趣之處就在于可以隨時隨地訪問網(wǎng)絡(luò)博客。

據(jù)悉，Nexus One將通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)發(fā)售，未綁約的售價為530美元，綁約則賣180美元，每個谷歌賬戶限買5部。這款手機(jī)最初將在美國出售。而銷售文件明確表示，手機(jī)可以運到美國以外，但有可能需要課稅，金額視有關(guān)國家或地區(qū)規(guī)定。