The company also said that it has achieved all it set out to do, and that there are no plans to launch another smartphone. T-Mobile, the original US operator, has also unlisted the device from its website and recommends the HTC HD2 and the Motorola CLIQ-Titanium smartphones instead. A recent upgrade to the Android 2.2 operating system enabled a long list of new features on the device, including the ability to turn the Nexus One into a mobile hotspot (ip-192.com reported here).

Google will continue to sell the smartphone in Germany, the UK and France through Vodafone and KT in South Korea. Registered developers can continue to purchase the device from Google. In the near future, the website dedicated to the Nexus One will start to showcase smartphones that run on the Android OS.

"Starting today, Nexus One users will begin to receive the Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) over-the-air software update on their phones," Google said in a statement. "In order to access the update, you will receive a message on your phone's notification bar. Just download the update, wait for it to install, and you should be all set. This update will be rolled out gradually to phones - and most users will receive the notification by the end of the week."

Nexus One phones running Android 2.2 can load data between two and five times faster. The Phone, applications Launcher, and Browser have dedicated shortcuts on the Home screen to make it easy to access them from any of the five home screen panels. Numeric pin or alpha-numeric password options are welcomed additions to improve security, and Exchange administrators have the ability to enforce password policies across devices. They can reset the smartphone to factory defaults in case it is lost or stolen. Devices can be synchronized with Exchange mail and calendars by providing a username and password.

Tip widgets show how users can customize the home screen with shortcuts or make use of multiple home screens. While most Nexus One owners can expect an upgrade within the next couple of days, users of other Android phones such as Sprint’s HTC Evo 4G (ip-192.com reported here) have to wait until the phones manufacturer rolls out an update.

Google has produced a short video that explains new features of the Linux based Android 2.2 operating system.

Owners of Google's Nexus One smartphone can expect an over-the-air update to Android 2.2 soon. Photo: www.imagine-your-world.com

"Nexus One is a powerful device that belongs on a powerful network. This is another step in our continued partnership of innovation with Google," said Fared Adib, Sprint vice president of product development. "While a pricing plan has not yet been determined for Nexus One, we are confident that it will be consistent with Sprint's commitment to deliver more value than our competitors and keep pricing simple."

Sprint will be the third US carrier offering the Android based phone, following T-Mobile and Verizon.  Google began selling the Google Android-based Nexus One from its web store in January without a service plan for $529 and with a two-year contract from T-Mobile for $179. Verizon Wireless will start to offer the Nexus One phone in spring, and Vodafone will offer the device in Europe, starting in April or May.

The Nexus One will complement the Samsung Moment and HTC Hero in Sprint's lineup of Android devices. However, customers looking for the new phone in Sprint stores will be disappointed. The company confirmed that the phone will only be available through the Google web store. A release date has not been set.

"These results show that the restlessness of Blackberry users with their current brand hasn't just been driven by the allure of iPhone," said John Martin, CEO of Crowd Science. "Rather, Blackberry as a brand just isn't garnering the loyalty seen with other mobile operating systems."

Blackberry and iPhone users tend to be older and more affluent than Android users, and all smartphone users prefer to download and use free applications instead of paid ones. Blackberry still dominates the business market, but only 7 percent use their Blackberry exclusively for business.

Crowd Scientists sampled 1,140 randomly smartphone users. iPhone users represented 17 percent of the respondents, followed by Blackberry users (15 percent), and Android users (3 percent).