Google CEO Eric Schmidt at Web 2.0 Drops both Nexus S and Android 2.3 Gingerbread

For all of you sitting at your computers (or sitting in the audience) today in the afternoon watching some fellows talking on stage on the way the world is working, you already know that one of those guys, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, whipped out something pretty neat to show off the brand new Android 2.3 Gingerbread system (if only for a few moments). The phone he displayed was none other than the mystical Nexus S, the same one we've been all a jibbles about since last week. Gingerbread held some sensual code-reading paying-for-donuts secrets of its own as well...

Inside this lovely new phone were features such as support for interaction with NFC enhanced devices and RFID tags. You know what that means? It means that when you get your Nexus S, you may very well be on your way to buying coffee with your phone instead of your wallet. The future or money is possibly in your electronic pocket. This is the same sort of tech that in recent times there's been some speculation for Apple to attain – looks like Google got there first? Schmidt noted that he believed this sort of interaction (phone to money to product or service) will be the one to replace the credit card.

Schmidt also noted that Gingerbread (aka Android 2.3) will be rolling itself out in the next few weeks, but for which devices he did not say. On the other hand, since it is loaded here on the Nexus S (carried by T-Mobile), maybe that's an alert on a certain release date for a certain phone?

The Google CEO did call the phone an "unannounced phone" from an "announced manufacturer," possibly saying so since the T-Mobile logo was prevalent in the upper right hand corner of the display during the demo. Then he dropped a challenge / declaration of excellence, all up in the Apple face, right after a compliment: "There's a set of things that the iPhone did a brilliant job of doing on a closed system... but that the next real focus is on the application layer. You have to establish volume first, which is what we've done...We think Android will be a leading platform, if not the leading platform."

[Via AndroidCommunity]