For all of those mourning the discontinuation of the Google’s first foray into the world of smartphone hardware, mourn no more. The HTC designed Nexus One might not have been as popular as some other Android hardware, some from HTC itself, like the EVO 4G, or the new Droid X, but Google has now announced that it will offer the device as the developer phone of choice.

What this means is the if you are a registered Android developer, you can buy the phone from Google directly, using the phone link after you sign in to your Android developers’ account, all for the princely sum of $529.The phone will come with Android 2.1 as default but will upgrade instantly on startup to the latest version, i. e, Android 2.2 ‘froyo’.

This seemingly steep amount is not really that much for a developer looking to get a pure, unlocked copy of Android without the usual embellishments that some manufacturers are resorting to on their Android devices.

[via Android Blog]