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The software is still rough around the edges, but has made good progress over the past few days as broken features are being researched and fixed. Based on the limited hardware — cutting edge when the Nexus debuted in January, 2010 — I wouldn’t expect Android 4.0 to run extremely fast, but this first video shows that early versions are certainly usable. And based on my experience of flashing ROMs on the Nexus dozens of times in the past, I’ve often seen improvements as the software is tweaked and optimized.

I haven’t yet flashed Ice Cream Sandwich on my old Nexus, but will be doing so soon. While the Nexus One had a limited audience, custom ROMs such as this one continue to extend the original device; Google has said that the phone won’t officially see an update to Android 4.0, so this is the only way to upgrade the software to Google’s newest mobile operating system.

Projects such as this reaffirm my personal belief that for some, a Nexus-branded Android phone is a solid investment. Instead of buying and switching phones a few times a year, the Nexus One lasted me nearly two full years because of its ability to easily morph into a “new phone” within five minutes: Once you have the process down pat, that’s all it takes to flash a new ROM on the device. Nexus devices also see Android updates first, directly from Google, too. That’s why I don’t mind paying $672.24 for my new unlocked Galaxy Nexus, which shipped today: I know I’ll get plenty of use out of it.

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As someone who jumped on the original Nexus One — at the full $529 price — the day it became available nearly two years ago, you’d think I’d be all over the Galaxy Nexus. Quite frankly, I’ve been enjoying my iPhone 4S so much that the new Nexus has taken a backseat to my iOS interest of late. But then I started to see the early reviews and happy tweets from new Galaxy Nexus owners.

Early reviews rock

The Verge gives the new Nexus an 8.6 out of 10, saying, “The Galaxy Nexus is the best Android phone ever made. It’s one of the best smartphones ever made, and with a couple of minor tweaks (particularly to the camera), it could be the best smartphone ever produced.” Chris Ziegler, a senior mobile editor at the site, didn’t write the review, but like I often do, he put his money where his mouth is and ordered an unlocked GSM version. Not long after receiving his own personal Galaxy Nexus, Ziegler tweeted this:

just to be clear, the galaxy nexus is the best smartphone I've ever used. no asterisk.—
Chris Ziegler (@zpower) November 25, 2011

Andy Abramson, a long-time friend who travels more than anyone I know, has very positive thoughts on his own Galaxy Nexus experience. By way of email, he pointed out that the software pairs nicely with the high-definition display dual-core processor, telling me: “Simply put, what Android always promised to be.” Since he travels so much, Abramson focused on how well the Galaxy Nexus can enable modern-day globe-trotters and has excellent VoIP support in his blog post discussing his new phone.

These are just two examples of happy Galaxy Nexus owners. Search the web or social networks and you’ll see even more. No phone is perfect, of course, but between the high-end Samsung hardware and Google’s newest mobile operating system, it already sounds like the Galaxy Nexus will be a hit. Now I can’t wait.

So I bought one

After some online research, I pulled the trigger on my own unlocked GSM Galaxy Nexus which works on both T-Mobile and AT&T’s fast mobile broadband networks. And for my rare overseas trips, I can use the phone on any GSM network. Instead of buying from an importer here in the U.S., I opted to buy direct from a U.K. retailer that will ship me the phone via 3-day FedEx. Some are selling the handset for near $800 — without shipping — but my total ended up being £439.98, which works out to $672.24 U.S. I’m hearing that an unlocked U.S. version could run $629, so the $43 premium to get an early unit isn’t too bad of a deal.

Aside from the positive feedback about the phone, my activities this holiday weekend also influenced my purchase decision. Both kids have a T-Mobile Sidekick 4G, which earned a solid review from us. But over time, both handsets have shown instability, lagginess and freezing; sometimes to the point of having to pull the battery. Samsung may be working on updates to address these problems, but I took matters into my own hands. I rooted both phones and installed a custom ROM on each. Guess what: All of the problems are gone and the phones are running faster than ever.

I like Android’s freedom to play

As I fixed both phones, I looked down at the faithful old Nexus One on my desk and thought back to the number of times I flashed custom software on the device these past two years. I’d guess I’ve done so well over a hundred times. And I had fun each and every time. I also installed the latest Android versions months before most phones saw them; if they ever did, that is.

Being a Nexus device, the new Galaxy will allow me to do the same: have fun by taking control of my phone. Based on the high praise for Android 4.0, I may not have to do so, but at least I’ll have the option to keep tinkering like a little kid with a new toy at Christmas. And of course, I’ll share my own hands-on thoughts with both the new phone and Google’s updated platform along the way.

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Bear in mind that the up-front cost of a smartphone is typically subsidized by the carrier in return for a contract commitment. However, the data suggests a few interesting trends on smartphone pricing. First, many of the high-end handsets over the past few years have retailed for $199 with contract. But we are in the midst of a change. It wasn’t until 2011 — with Verizon’s LTE rollout in particular — that some devices were priced in the $249 to $299 range. The other exception, of course, is Apple’s iPhone: The newest base model has always cost $199, while iPhones with more storage capacity boost the price.

Second is the trend of consumers’ shopping around for less-expensive hardware, because the capabilities of today’s lower-priced handsets are often on par with last year’s high-priced smartphones. My Nexus One — $199 on contract or $529 without — was cutting edge in Jan. 2010 as one of the first phones with a 1 GHz CPU. This year, phones with such a chip can be had for half of that cost or less. For a first-time smartphone buyer, there’s no need to spend $200 or more on a phone that has more capabilities than needed when a solid device can be had for under $100.

NPD says that 64 percent of  consumers planning to spend between $200 and $250 on a smartphone end up buying a cheaper device. That would imply to me that as the smartphone adoption rate rises, fewer high-end smartphones above $200 will be sold compared to those priced under $200, as feature-phone users — the remaining audience for new smartphones — are opting for capable but less-expensive handsets. Sure, there will always be consumers in the upgrade cycle that step up to the latest dual-core handset with a high-definition display, but they don’t represent the bulk of the user base, judging by these trends.

I suspect that’s why we will continue to witness the rising market share of companies that aren’t household names in America. ZTE and Huawei, for example, are determined to grow their U.S. smartphone sales through low-cost but solid smartphones that appeal to the masses. In September, Huawei introduced a $29 handset that in many ways is comparable to my Nexus One.

Of course, there’s no substitute for a solid experience, even on the $199 and up smartphones. Perhaps that’s why NPD points out that Apple’s iPhone 4 was still the top-selling smartphone last quarter, followed by the reduced-cost iPhone 3GS.

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My Nexus has seen at least 100 custom ROM flashes, so one more is no big deal, especially if the hardware itself can handle it. I initially figured that Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich software would require a dual-core processor, but that’s not the case. Google will be bringing Android 4.0 to the Nexus S, which like my Nexus One, uses a single-core CPU.

The biggest internal difference between the two Nexus phones is actually in the storage capacity. My Nexus One has a scant 512 MB of internal memory, of which only 190 MB is available for application storage. In contrast, the Nexus S has 16 GB of storage, with 1 GB considered internal storage and the remaining 15 GB as external / USB memory. A third-part port of Android 4.0 then, could be a tight squeeze on the Nexus One.

This is just another sign that it might be time for me to let go of the ol’ Nexus. I hung on to it mainly because as a Google phone, it was often the first to see Android update – directly from Google itself, not from the carriers. Now that it won’t, and considering there are far more advanced Android phones available — yes, I’m looking at you Samsung Galaxy S II and Galaxy Nexus — I’m planning moving on to a new Android phone.

So long, Google Nexus One. Thanks for the ride and for showing me how Android has matured from a clunky touchscreen user interface to something far more useful and usable. Your dessert-named software always satisfied my tastes.

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The short list of compatible smartphones includes the Nexus One, Nexus S, HTC Inspire 4G, and three Motorola phones: the Droid 2, Droid X, and Atrix 4G. In a blog post announcing the software debut, Hulu Plus says that it “expects to add to the number of Android smartphones and will be making additional device announcements throughout the year.” Although the company didn’t explain why the rollout will be staged, the reason is likely related to DRM, or digital rights management, security. Netflix, for example, says it must test its software on each handset model before supporting it, to ensure that the content can’t be pirated or viewed without a subscription.

I recently started a Hulu Plus trial on my Xbox 360. I still have a Google Nexus One handset, so I installed the software this morning. The overall experience is solid, and once I signed in to my account in the app, I was watching television shows within a minute. The app worked fine for me on a 3G connection, too, so it isn’t restricted to Wi-Fi only.

Of course, using mobile broadband to stream video can eat through a bandwidth cap. However, the Hulu app provides options for regulating data use. There are three streaming quality options in the app: high, medium and low. The high setting reduced noise and brought clarity, but for mobile viewing, the medium setting looked fine to my eyes. The software will save your place when pausing or stopping a video, and you can pick up where you left off on another device; start watching on the phone and finish up on the big screen, for example.

Searching for programs is simple and effective, and I like how the application provides a history of watched content. You can sort programming by most popular, newest and by network, as well. If I decide to keep my Hulu Plus subscription, having the mobile app will be a no-brainer. Then again, I’m one of the lucky ones, given that I have a compatible handset. For Hulu, Netflix or any other video service to really get popular on Android, it’s going to have to quickly add support for new handsets.

That issue aside, another one, at least to me, is that Hulu Plus still shows advertisements, even though it’s a paid service. That’s the case on a computer or on my Xbox 360 as well, but all those little advertisements will add up to wasted mobile broadband bandwidth on a handset; it’s probably not enough to push people over a data cap, but it’s annoying nonetheless. Perhaps if Yahoo buys Hulu, as some think it should, it won’t need to supplement the subscription price with ads. Then again, that deal looks like a tough sell for a number of reasons.

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• MacBook Air. .The 13-inch base model with a total of 4 GB of RAM is a real workhouse for what I do, which is mostly online work. But the Air works just as well for editing and encoding high-definition videos as my old MacBook did. And unlike the MacBook, I can go for nearly eight hours on a single charge. The SD card slot is a help as well; images and videos from my camera can easily be imported.
• Canon S95. My new point-and-shoot is super in low light, which is key for the show. It also works really well for 720p video and fits in a pants pocket, so there’s no need for me to take both a bulky DSLR and handheld camcorder. The spare battery I have for the S95 is small and weighs practically nothing, so I’m good for all-day shooting.
• Google Nexus One. My old standby smartphone surely has to come along for voice calls, Twittering from the show and more. I have a spare battery for this too, which is handy, because I often use the phone as a 3G mobile broadband device — like right now, since the airport Wi-Fi is on the fritz for me!
• GorillaPod Tripod. This tiny, telescoping tripod folds up nicely in my gear bag and although I may not even need it, it doesn’t add much weight to my bag. If I don’t take it, I just know that I’ll need it, so it made the cut.

That’s essentially it for the show floor, although I’ll likely tote the power cord to my Mac Book Air as well, since there are plenty of places to top off the battery. Other nice-to-haves coming along for the ride are my Samsung Galaxy Tab and iPod touch, but those are mainly for the flight and in my room. I considered taking the Tab on the show floor for mobile blogging, but it’s not optimal for the longer form posts that I’ve been writing of late. And due to our extensive customizations for GigaOM, the WordPress mobile client sometimes acts up on me, so blogging on the Tab isn’t likely.

However, my Tab doubles as a T-Mobile 3G hotspot, so if I suspect my phone may not make it through a day, the Galaxy Tab could find a home in my bag. I also brought a Verizon MiFi as an extra precaution, mainly because it adds next to nothing in terms in bulk or weight. Thanks to my two Android mobile hotspots and their unlimited 3G plans with T-Mobile, I rarely use the MiFi these days. In fact, if I don’t use it at all on this trip, I’ll probably suspend the month-to-month service or even cancel it altogether.

All told, I suspect the CES gear in my bag or on my person weighs around four to five pounds, which is the lightest I can remember. Often, I take so many extra cables, laptop batteries, camera lenses and such that my bag can easily weigh eight pounds or more, but after six years of CES, I’ve learned my lesson: travel as lightly as possible without sacrificing the ability to get work done. This weight reduction illustrates how mobile technology has changed in the last-half dozen years; devices are more connected, battery efficient, smaller and lighter than ever!

Disclosure: Automattic, the maker of WordPress.com, is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.

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Here in the U.S., there have been high hopes that Google’s Nexus One might break the control of the wireless carriers. That didn’t happen for many reasons, however, and now James Allworth at the Harvard Business Review suggests that Google faces the risk of its Android cash cow running dry. Phone makers and carriers are stripping Google’s revenue opportunities from the platform by choosing different search engines, for example. Allworth points to a potentially dire future for Google, even though the search giant recently reported mobile search revenues topping $1 billion:

It won’t be long before Google’s “allies” in the Open Handset Alliance — the manufacturers making Android phones — realize that Google needs them a lot more than they need Google, and auction off the default search services on the phones they ship. Google may have no choice but to buy their support, too. And it surely won’t come cheap.

Dana Blankenhorn, a ZDNet writer covering Linux and open source, agrees with Allworth, but takes the conversation one step further by suggesting that Google revisit building their own handset. I applaud this idea, and in fact, had hoped Google would begin to loosen the grip that carriers have over U.S. consumers with the Nexus One. But the reasons why he suggests this could happen with a second effort aren’t very convincing. Here’s why:

Going it alone hurts hardware partners. For Google to succeed in this vision of the future, it needs to build the best, most appealing Android phone on the market. To do that, if it were even possible to do, would be a stab in the back of the very hardware partners that have helped make Android a success: Think Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG and others. If Google were a hardware company, it might take that risk, but Google isn’t a hardware company. Simply put: Google needs hardware partners.

Forget the carriers and their networks. Blankenhorn suggests that Google skip the cellular networks and “organize every Wi-Fi network” it can with “Super WiFi antennae from your points of presence (those Google-in-a-box units at phone offices around the country) and enable people to switch the SIM card easily.” If it were that easy these days to divorce phone service from the cellular networks, wouldn’t Apple have already done that with the Wi-Fi-capable iPod touch? Wi-Fi is more of a localized connection, not a national network. Had Google nabbed spectrum for WiMAX a few years back, this approach might have been feasible, but still challenging. That didn’t happen though, so Google’s best chance for creating its own network from auctioned airwaves is behind it.

A Google MVNO or regional partners? An interesting suggestion from Blankenhorn is to have Google partner up with regional carriers to create an ad-hoc network. He specifically mentions MetroPCS, which is a good example. But MetroPCS doesn’t even have a 3G network of its own; it’s a value carrier that focuses on offering low-cost voice minutes and messages. The carrier is just now rolling out an LTE network, but it’s very limited in terms of coverage and likely more comparable to current 3G network speeds. (Note: I’ll be reviewing the MetroPCS LTE network next week.) Without a fast network, a Google Android superphone is far less useful to customers and therefore, less of a revenue generator for Google. And guess where some of those other small carriers get their network capacity from? The big four carriers such as Sprint, whose wholesale network business is thriving. Carriers still use different technologies and frequencies too, adding more complexity for choice among networks.

Forget the subsidy. Blankenhorn thinks Google should charge the full price for its magical phone and bypass any carrier subsidies. As someone who paid the full $529 price-tag for a Nexus One, I can see how that might work, but then I’m probably in the minority. Like a drug, U.S. consumers are addicted to lower-priced handsets because they can’t fathom spending $500 or more for a phone. Handset subsidies are part of the economic mindset here, and if you don’t believe me, just ask Nokia; with few subsidized handsets available, Nokia smartphones are all but absent outside of tech circles in the U.S.

The “Last Device You’ll Ever Need.” The last suggestion sounds good on paper: Create the phone with hot-swappable parts. Figuring that data can be synchronized with Google, the idea is that a higher up-front cost would be depreciated over time because the handset can be upgraded. That’s intriguing, but would require hardware expertise for a modular design. Of course, Google would have alienated itself from any potential hardware partners by going it alone, so who’s going to engineer such a beast? And will consumers want to swap out the 5 megapixel camera sensor for one with 8 megapixels? Some may, but phones are becoming viewed as consumer electronics devices: people want to turn them on and have them simply work.

Again, I’d love to see Google reduce carrier control, both here and abroad. And there’s some merit to the thought that Google’s openness for Android distribution could hurt the company financially, especially if bidding wars ensue on which search engine appears on what phone. But the fact remains that Google has already gone down this path once and it didn’t make a dent in the control exerted by carriers. To think it can do so the second time around is naive.

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The growth of Android adoption has not slowed, and numbers released this week showed the platform had moved into the global number two smartphone position behind Symbian. Android has captured 25.5 percent of the world’s smartphone market, up from a mere 3.5 percent a year ago. Smartphones are all the rage currently, but only account for 19.3 percent of all cellphones sold, so there is a lot of room for smartphone makers to grab a piece of the ever growing pie.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab with Android is just hitting consumer’s hands, and to compete with the iPad it needs apps written to take advantage of the larger screens on tablets. That process is just getting started as this week two such apps were released. The Wall Street Journal launched its Android tablet edition which provides access to its online content using a weekly subscription scheme. Fuze Meeting, which brings remote collaboration to Android tablet users, was also released this week.

Our own Om Malik took delivery of a Galaxy Tab and the GigaOM staff captured the unboxing on video. The Tab is highly portable given its 7-inch form, and only weighs about half what an iPad weighs. The screen on the Tab is brilliant and responsive, and it is apparent this tablet is the first serious competitor to the larger slate from Apple.