T-Mobile on Oct. 22 for $179. Early reviews were mainly positive, though they acclaimed the phone had a behaviour pattern to go to find up with the iPhone in terms of functionality and elegance. Among those rumored to be working on Android-based phones are Sprint-Nextel, LG, Samsung and Motorola.
There's also some clatter that China Mobile is intelligent about selling one. But there are several challenges I don't dig Android overcoming. First, it starts off nature down the incline of operating systems for smart-phones. At the foremost of the amass are BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, the iPhone and Symbian. This mould one is produced by a consortium of the largest stall phone manufacturers in the world, including Ericsson and Nokia.
And it was recently announced that Symbian will become open-source. Throw in the event that a collect called the LiMo Foundation is developing a Linux-based operating organized whole for ambulatory phones, and Android becomes just one of three open-source options. Yes, you say, but this is Google. To which I say: Yes, but this is Google. The train has been churning out countless initiatives in every direction, but they seem to have no coordination.
A year ago, it launched the Open Social dynamism to table Facebook. Heard anything about that lately? Another more late-model example: You'll have to hang around awhile before Google's further Chrome browser can be second-hand on its Android phone. CNet recently reported that Google co-founder Sergey Brin well-known the two high-profile initiatives were developed separately.
"We have not wanted to trial one's hands to the other's," Brin was quoted as saying. He went on to add: "Probably a resulting construct of Android is effective to start up a lot of the Chrome stack." If you were developing two big products to be released just weeks apart, wouldn't you want them to handle together unhesitatingly from the start? And that leads to the next question, one that applies to Chrome as well: Why, exactly, is Google doing this? There appears to be no gate dummy around Android. There's no condition that an Android phone use Google search. Maybe Google is just tiring to establish the domain a better place.
But given all these issues, if you were structure a au fait phone, how much would you play on Google continuing to emend Android? And how big would it pilfer just to get it to betrothal the iPhone? The hindmost enigma is a big one. To be competitive, Android must appeal to developers. Smart-phones, whether the BlackBerry or the iPhone, are increasingly active to be defined by the applications that third parties found to supervise on them. On the surface, Android has an appealing pitch: It's open-source, so anyone can happen any operation for these phones. Sounds great in theory.
But many of the widgets I've seen built for Open Social are somewhat useless. And tip what happened to Facebook when it threw kick off its policy behind year? Developers rushed in with a lot of trivial junk. To its credit, Facebook reformed that program to use both the carrot and the endure to foster higher-quality applications. And while developers are often annoyed over Apple's restrictions for iPhone applications, having fewer apps to opt from is better for consumers. Tally up this sizable slope of hurdles, and I wouldn't be placing any bets on Android.
Contact Chris O'Brien at or (415) 298-0207 or follow him on Twitter at sjcobrien.
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