Very cool. Especially good deal for people who registered early and paid only $300 for the conference. For people in academia, it was only $50.

http://code.google.com/events/io/faq.html

I'm pretty happy with my iPhone, so I decided to sell my Google I/O phone. If you're interested in trying it out, I'm sure others are doing the same too.

Definitely interested! I don't believe a U.S. G2 release has been announced.

This is a pretty awesome move from Google, but don't be fooled. Google has everything to gain, both from gaining would-be developers, and the PR.

Tech Crunch saying something like, "What will we see next week from Apple at its WWDC event? Probably nothing." is really ignorant on a lot of levels.

It may be a shrewd move for Google, but the net effect for attendees remains unchanged - they got a free phone, which is awesome no matter which way you cut it.

TC is right, we won't see anything like this from Apple - but then again Apple doesn't seem to have any problems attracting developers. You gotta do what you gotta do...

I imagine there aren't many profitable for-profit companies that do anything for purely altruistic reasons.

If this is truly an "Oprah Moment", then attendees will also have to pay tax on the phone just like any other prize:

http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/22/news/newsmakers/oprah_car_ta...

The tax on the phone however is significantly lower than the tax on a brand new car and most people shouldn't notice the impact on their tax return documents from a several hundred dollar gift.

You don't pay tax on gifts only winnings.

In the US giving someone that does not work for you up to ~12k/year is tax free, but the person giving the gift needs to pay tax on gifts larger than that. With some paperwork there is a lifetime exception up to 1 million but it comes out of the estate tax exemption.

So, if Bill Gates gave his child 1 billion Bill would need to pay ~400 million to the IRS. However, there is an exception for anyone you are married to, and I think educational / heath care gifts are also excluded.

PS: I don't know if it counts as a "prize" or a "gift" if you hand it out to everyone that shows up, but I just wanted to make the difference clear.

I don't see why it's a big deal. Sell the car to cover the tax. You still come out ahead.

Actually, that's one of the options listed in the article.

Due to something related to tax, none of the Google employees attending Google I/O were allowed to get the phone.

Also worth noting: All Googlers got a G1 for Christmas, so presumably all attending Googlers already have an Android phone. (Not the new one, of course, but still...a nice phone running Android.)

This post, and the comments on it, are a good reason _not_ to ban TechCrunch, as I've seen a few calls to do.