08 Mar
Posted by Matt
in android, developer, droid, google, motorola, nexus, one, seeding
On 2nd March I received an e-mail from "Android Market Seeding" at Google. A snippet of the e-mail reads:
"Due to your contribution to the success of Android Market, we would like to present you with a brand new Android device as part of our developer device seeding program. You are receiving this message because you're one of the top developers in Android Market with one or more of your applications having a 3.5 star or higher rating and more than 5,000 unique downloads. "
At first I was very skeptical. There's no such thing as a free lunch, let alone a free brand new expensive Android phone. After perusing some other sites it appeared that this program is actually official so I excitedly signed up.
Three days later I received another e-mail:
"We've received your information for the Android Market Device Seeding Program and have successfully validated the Google Order Number from your developer account.
Your information will now be sent to our shipping partner for order processing... you should receive your phone in 2-4 weeks!"
Wow, it looks like this is actually happening! Google is going to send me a free phone purely because I have an app that's doing well in the market (http://preinvent.com/batteryleft)
As I already have a Droid, I did ask them if they could send a Nexus One, and got this reply:
"Phones are assigned by random distribution and we cannot accommodate requests for specific phones. Please note that the Droid also comes with 30 days of free service and works great on WiFi networks."
Fair enough, still can't really complain. Very impressed that they are also giving away free service with the Droid, although I have yet to hear if they're doing a similar thing with the Nexus One.
Go Google!
* UPDATE *
I just received an e-mail from Google regarding the Nexus One:
"N1 does not have any service with it. It is an unlocked GSM phone."
So no free service, but it is unlocked. Woohoo!
* UPDATE *
It arrived! I have a shiny new Motorola Droid. Whilst I'm incredibly grateful for this, I already have a Droid so there's really no point in me owning a second. I currently have it for sale on eBay, after which I'll hopefully be able to buy a Nexus One and continue developing with that.
Comments
Activating the Droid developer phone
I too had received the motorola droid developer phone since I already had a Nexus, I decided to sell it on ebay as well (too pay for part of the Nexus). The buyer is unable to activate her Verizon wireless line on the droid because it says there's another number already activated. I'm assuming this is the free 30 day complimentary service. However, she just wants to activate her number right away. After countless calls to Verizon Wireless customer support, they are unable to help her because they can't even find the number associated with the phone in their system. My question is did you have the same experience with your buyer and how did they activate theirs?
The guy I sold it to had no
The guy I sold it to had no problems at all getting it activated.
What I did was activate it myself first. I then called Verizon tech support and asked them to deactivate it and remove it from any existing numbers. The girl I talked to had to get her supervisor to deactivate it, so if you have problems ask to speak to a supervisor and see if they can help.
30 day
i got 1 of droids on e-bay if i hold out for the 30 days free will i be able to put my number on it?
I didn't have to - I just
I didn't have to - I just activated it, called Verizon and got them to deactivate it from the existing account. I may have been lucky, it sounds like a lot of people are having problems.
I did e-mail Google and asked them to release the phone, giving them the IMEI. However I never received a reply, but they may have done it anyway. Might be worth dropping them an e-mail.
How to email google
What email address did you use to contact google and what exactly did you say?
I e-mailed
I e-mailed android-market-seeding@google.com asking them to release my Droid from their business account so I could use it on my own number. I also gave them the MEID number. I don't know if this ever did anything (I never got a response) or whether I just got lucky with Verizon.
Free 30 days on Droid
So has anyone used the free 30 days? Did it turn off automatically? What did you do when the 30 days was up?
I had this same problem...
I had this same problem... Someone gave me their Google IO droid as a re-gift since they already had an Android phone and I already had a Verizon account. I was _really_ surprised when I pressed activate and it just worked without any sort of prompt for information.
I initially called VZW customer service from my existing phone and was told I couldn't activate the free droid because it was assigned to another account. After much research turning up nothing, I decided I would just call customer service FROM the free phone, couldn't hurt, right?
Bingo! Worked. Here's what happened...
I pressed 0 to speak to an operator and was routed to "corporate customer service" (not exactly sure of the name, somehow different from consumer, anyway). I had to press random numbers for the SSN/Tax ID because I wasn't sure what to press since just "#" was not an option.
I told the rep what the deal was and she took the free Droid off the temporary account then transferred me to customer service where they activated the phone on my account. I'm glad I figured it out, but it would have been helpful if they were a bit clearer in the instructions with that.
Anyway, good luck folks!
30 days
will let you known 20 more days hope it will let me put my number on or did i just throw $350. out the window
Can you let me know if you
Can you let me know if you figure anything else out. I have the same problem. my email is skalamera@gmail.com
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Steve
I'm sure you'll be fine -
I'm sure you'll be fine - have you called Verizon to get them to release it to your number?
Any solutions to this problem?
I called Verizon Customer service 800-922-0204, but was told the phone is with a corporate account and he couldn't not pull up any information, neither can he deactivated it. Anyone knows how to deactivate the phone please?
Did you try calling from the
Did you try calling from the phone itself?
I don't have the phone
I don't have the phone onhand. Anyone knows the direct number for Verizon corporate customer service? Thank you!