A PR Nexus

Wasn’t it just swell of Robert Scoble (@scobleizer) to set up a video camera at today’s Google presser introducing the Nexus One, Google’s presumed iPhone killer?

Midway through the event, I counted some 16,000+ people signed on to watch the historical event unfold. (You see, Robert, having all those followers can come in handy.)

I just wonder why Google’s PR peeps didn’t go through the trouble of web-streaming their own news conference, while arranging for on-site attendees to record wirelessly, to ensure optimal site lines and audio. But then again, Google likely wouldn’t have enabled the dialog box that accompanied Scoble’s Ustream feed. (See photo above.)

Of course when the Google executive-in-charge announced that all in-person (Googleplex) attendees could pick up their own Nexus One’s “starting at 12 Noon downstairs,” I had to suggest that those on the webcast should also take part in the payola. Someone then likened it to the Oprah auto giveaway.

Still, you have to give Google credit for getting all those early adopters to eat out of its hand. Virtually every tech influencer I follow on Twitter regurgitated today’s talking points. And why wouldn’t they? Here were a few of the highlights I caught when not penning a client news release:

• “The Nexus One belongs in an emerging category of devices we call ‘super phones.'”

• The text-driven apps are all voice-enabled, e.g., “take me to Mt. Fuji” on Google Earth or, “Hey, I’m really enjoying the phone’s QWERTY keyboard” on GMail.
  

• Google’s Nexus One (w/Android OS) can be purchased via new Google-hosted web store, a first for the company (though in during the Q&A, Wired’s Fred Vogelstein questioned Google’s retailing acumen, or rather lack thereof)

And last, but hardly least:

• Google’s Nexus One to be available through Verizon Wireless come this spring via Google’s new web store

Wow. So much fort Verizon jumping in to bed with the iPhone. Herer’s a round-up of some of the coverage of today’s big event:

• Walt Mossberg for All Things Digital – “Google’s Nexus One is old New Face in Super-Smartphones”

• Miguel Heft for The New York Times – “Google Rolls Out Nexus One, Its Rival to the iPhone”

• Matthew Honan for Wired‘s “Gadget Lab” – “Google Debuts Android-Powers Nexus One ‘Superphone'”

• Mark Memmot for NPR’s The Two-Way” blog “Here Comes Google’s Nexus One ‘Smartphone; NPR’s Sydell Really Likes It”

• Erick Schonfeld for TechCrunch (via WashPost) “Nexus One Coming to Vodafone and Version, First of a A ‘Series of Devices'”

• and the list goes on … More photos too.

Hey. Didn’t Google give Joshua Topolsky of Engadget the exclusive back on December 14? “Exclusive: First Google hone/Nexus One Photos, Android 2.1 On Board”

And if this all wasn’t enough, you can watch Scoble’s video of today’s presser here.