
Google’s “Oprah Moment”: An Android Phone For Everyone At Google I/O - rms
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/27/googles-oprah-moment-an-android-phone-for-everyone-at-google-io/
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kqr2
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>

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zain
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.

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

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intregus
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.

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potatolicious
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...

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kqr2
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...](http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/22/news/newsmakers/oprah_car_tax/index.htm)

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cstejerean
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.

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Retric
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.

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

