MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., (Reuters) – Google Inc took  the wraps off the first of its smartphones yesterday, a device  with speech recognition that it hopes can take on Apple’s  iPhone over time and help shore up the company’s dominance in  Internet advertising.

Analysts say the phone — to be sold directly to consumers  — is not expected to dramatically alter the carrier-hardware  vendor relationship the industry relies on, nor is it likely to  yield a revenue windfall in the short term, though executives  said it could be profitable.

Google plans to use what it calls a “superphone” — the  first of many types of smartphones that it will make — to  expand its reach from the PC to the mobile world and ensure its  online products and ads get prominent placement on a new breed  of wireless Internet devices.

The highly anticipated Nexus One, which marks the first  time the 11-year-old Internet search titan has designed and  sold its own consumer hardware device, could provide Google  with a viable challenge to the iPhone and Research in Motion’s   BlackBerry.

It “wasn’t the game-changer people thought it could be,”  Canaccord Adams analyst Jeff Rath said. Google could have  shaken up the industry by offering the device for free, but  instead chose more traditional pricing, he said.

Rath added that though his early impression was that the  Nexus One was a good phone, it was unclear how much better it  was than Motorola’s Droid, released last year and that also  runs on Google’s Android operating system platform.

“It’s very close to the Droid, some people will debate  whether it’s better. But it looks like an incremental  improvement rather than a blow-the-doors-off improvement,” Rath  said.

The Nexus One, which was garnering favorable first reviews  on tech Websites and forums yesterday, ships immediately from  Google’s online store for $179 with a two-year contract from  Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA, or $529 without a service  plan.

Executives said the phone will be carried on Verizon  Wireless’s network in the United States, and eventually on  Vodafone’s in Europe. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of  Vodafone and Verizon Communications.

Investors are taking a wait-and-see view on Google’s first  effort to sell a hardware product directly to consumers.

Google’s stock has risen about 7 percent since the start of  December, setting a 52-week high of $629.51 on Monday. But  analysts say that was driven by improvements in its core  business of Internet search advertising, rather than the  prospect of tapping a new pool of revenue selling smartphones.