Google's gift to staffers: the HTC Dream, or G1, smartphone.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)Clarification added December 30 (see text below).
For Googlers eagerly awaiting their famous holiday bonuses, be warned: Santa is tightening his belt too.
Google employees, some of whom have reportedly grown used to fairytale-like cash bonuses on the north side of $20,000, apparently got coal in their stockings this year. Certainly that's the takeaway for gossip blog Valleywag, which in a headline likened this year's bonus to "dogfood"--a euphemism for in-house testing--because Google would like some feedback. (Clarification: A few Google employees have contacted me to suggest that Valleywag's report on holiday bonus amounts of $20,000 likely confused performance bonuses with holiday bonuses said to be on the order of $1,000.)
So how bad was it? Well, Google gave its employees a smartphone. Yep, can you believe it? Man, if I had a nickel for all the years my bosses gave me a smartphone...
But I digress. Back to Google's gift. Apparently, Valleywag took issue with Google giving its employees an Android--its own phone! Well, actually, the memo that Valleywag reprinted referred to it as a "Dream phone." It's basically the T-Mobile G1 that retails for $179.99, but it's been customized to "work anywhere in the world" on the carrier of their choice. (Google estimates its value at $400.)
The nerve!
Here, in the real world, while many in the tech industry have received pink slips, Google employees are receiving a gift--oh, yeah, it is a gift--that many people would love to find under their trees. What a bummer, man. As far as the dogfooding goes, I am guessing that this company that has a reputation for being astoundingly generous when economic realities were more positive isn't going to can employees for not sending back the questionnaire.
Now, back to the topic of Santa...
HTC's Dream, aka the T-Mobile G1, next to an Apple iPhone
Updated 4:28 p.m. PST to reflect that it's T-mobile's ad campaign, with no Google involvement.
T-Mobile plans to flood the market with a billion ads in two days for its G1 Android phone, with AOL's Platform-A network delivering the advertisements, according to Advertising Age.
Platform-A President Lynda Clarizio estimated the campaign will reach 81 million people when it runs next week, according to the article, which quoted an unnamed source as saying the ad campaign will cost about $1.5 million.
"The goal for T-Mobile was to reach as many people as possible in a short period of time," AdAge quoted Clazario as saying.
Google said the campaign is T-Mobile's and it's uninvolved in the marketing effort.
The T-Mobile G1, a version of an HTC phone called the Dream, is the first phone to use Google's Android operating system. The phone went on sale October 22, but future Android phones are expected in 2009 from other companies including Motorola, Kyocera, Samsun, and LG Electronics.
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