Samsung and Google next month could unveil the Nexus Two based on Google’s Android 2.3 operating system, the follow-up to the failed Google Nexus One smartphone, according to a gadget blog.
Samsung has scheduled a press event for Nov. 8 in New York City, and media invitations to the event went out earlier this week.
While some believe the news will be the Android-based Samsung Galaxy Player, the gadget blog Android and Me said the companies will unveil the Nexus Two as the first smartphone based on the Android 2.3, or Gingerbread, build that is optimized for tablet computers.
The news comes two days after City A.M. said Carphone Warehouse will sell the Nexus Two exclusively in the United Kingdom this holiday season.
Both Google and Samsung declined to comment.
The emergence of a Nexus Two on Samsung would be a surprise to the 5 million owners of the Samsung Galaxy S devices offered by Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.
If Android and Me’s claim is true, it would also count as a revitalization of the Nexus brand after the demise of the inaugural Google Nexus One.
Google launched the Nexus One last January as the first handset based on Android 2.1, selling the device unlocked through its Web store for $529, or $179 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile.
The device was unique because, while HTC made the hardware, Google put only the software it wanted on it.
Few people purchased the device and, after Sprint and Verizon Wireless reneged on their plans to offer the device, Google shuttered the Web store in the spring, offering the Nexus One to developers as a testbed gadget.
Questions remain. If Samsung launches the Nexus Two this holiday season, will it retain the Nexus brand model of allowing Google to provide all of the software? If so, what carrier will carry it, outside of Carphone Warehouse across the pond?
Moreover, how soon before existing Samsung handsets, many of which have yet to get the Android 2.2 bump, receive Gingerbread?