The Android/Google G1 is coming soon, and the iPhone may finally have some real competition

September 23, 2008 · Filed Under Product Reviews 

The Google iphone competitor, long awaited and rumored, was announced today. It will be crowned as the G1, and will be officially available from carrier T-Mobile on Oct. 22nd. It will list at $179, if you subscribe to a 2-year agreement.

And Apple should be a little nervous. As trendy and slick as the iPhone is, this one has a few advantages, at a smaller price, as well as the disadvantages of a first-generation product. It will probably target younger e-mail/text people initally, according to published reports. It supports Word, Excel and Powerpoint, but not MS Exchange.

It will feature a large touchscreen, and slide-out keypad, and a trackball. Other included goodies: a 3MP camera built-in, support for both EDGE and 3G networks, a GMail client that can sync up your e-mail, calendar and contacts, and an Amazon feature where you can purchase music right on the phone.

More importantly, the Android system is open-source, which makes all kinds of additions and changes much more transparent than Apple’s rather closed, secretive and NDA-shackled process.

Pardon my soapbox, but why does Apple always design things so closed, proprietary and close to the vest? “Secret sauce” annoys many in the tech sector for a variety of reasons, and the way this industry is today, most secret formulas get cracked, hacked or broken in a few months anyway, so what’s the point? That kind of thing worked for the Mac desktops, due to the fact they touted strong compatibility over the PC, so that gave it a reason to be so closed as a platform. For a mobile, worldwide platform like the iPhone, it makes little sense to keep development info so closed off, and (IMHO) limits its appeal to some portions of its market. I’ll get off the soapbox now.

Anyhow, it’ll be interesting to see how the smartphone war shapes up as Google jumps into the fray. I expect the iPhone will keep its top position, but not by as much as before.

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Comments

One Response to “The Android/Google G1 is coming soon, and the iPhone may finally have some real competition”

  1. Paul ridge on September 23rd, 2008 10:25 pm

    I personally love developing or the iPhone … I’ve made quite a bit of money on the platform. I have millions of users able to access my app with a few taps of their finger on iPhone AND iPod Touch.

    With Android on the other hand…. my app will have to target certain devices because apps won’t function the same across devices. Plus the market that they are introducing is open to anyone.. so my apps will be lost in the unfiltered CRAP and SPAM … plus android will NOT have a large user base like the iphone & ipod touch combined.

    So in closing … developing or the Android would be a loss for my company. I’ll take the closed NDA platform over Android anyday.

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