The blogs are full these days of Android phones coming to the market. Especially on the Verizon-Motorola-Android phone that is being launches as we speak.
I just picked one of the articles: the one from Michael Arrington on TechMeme.
+++Update: very complete update by Scobleizer on 8 Nov 2009.
From a US perspective probably the key differentiators is that Droid comes with Verizon. Every time i meet folks in the US, they complain like hell about AT&T. In other regions this may be less relevant – as some countries do not allow packages deals – and many have hacked iPhones that use other providers.
I don’t think Apple cares a lot about the hacked iPhones. Sold is sold. For Apple it is about market share in highly profitable markets. They have already very successfully milked the iPhone profit/cash cow. They may be worried about marketshare competition with Android. But Apple will for sure come-up with something else that is completely disruptive – not necessarily in iPhone land – to reset the landscape once again. And who still talks about Windows Mobile, albeit the latest version was released only a couple of weeks ago with a lot of marketing dollars ?
Last i heard that iPhone in the US is on its own counting for 21% of all mobile internet browsing. That’s a really big part of the mobile pie. No wonder Google goes full steam ahead.
You probably all have read about Google being bullish during last weeks financial results: crisis is over, Android going to be very very big, and going to really spend money in innovation. What will that mean ? Already now, Google is cranking our one innovation after the other. At about one announcement per week. So, now they are going to really invest in innovation ? They sit on a cash-pile of more than 20 billion USD. It will be very interesting to see where they will put their money.
Next week, Microsoft in launching Windows 7. I just read that Apple has almost 10% of the “PC” market in the US. Looking at recent history, i would not be surprised that both Google and Apple will use the publicity momentum of Windows 7 to undercut Microsoft’s airspace with some of their own announcements.
My good friend Nick was already playing with one of the Android phones when we are at Sibos. As a matter of fact, Nick has something like seven (7 !) mobile devices in his backpack ! Anything from the iPhone and iTouch to the latest HTC (with our without Windows) and the latest Android.
He told me: “once you have touched the Android phone, you realize how outdated the iPhone is “. Wow.
The key question will be whether Google can build an as successfull application marketplace as Apple. Nick runs more than 350 iPhone apps on his iPhone and his iTouch.
So Nick knows what he talks about. Nick, feel free to jump into the comments and share your reflections on the iPhone vs. Android debate.
Petervan Studios 
I never thought I woudl ever say this, but the iPhone is definately getting outdated. Things seem to move so fast….
At first it was ok that the iPhone didn’t have 3G, or was only able to run one app at a time. Why? Because it was cool! Heck, I even bought my first iPhone in America knowing that it would not work in the UK waiting patiently for the first jailbreak hack. Until that hack arrived it was an expensive $999 iPod Touch (ie Wifi only!) even though even the iPod touch didn’t exist then.
But I still remember the cool factor when I used coverflow on the London Underground to browse my music. Even though I had my headphones in I could still hear the Ooohs, and Gasps, from fellow onlooker commuters; they practically burned my iphone with their glares.
But that coolness has died away. The device is now ubiqitous, and no longer has the status. As such I’m less forgiving about its short-comings…..
For instance: Apple has widgets on the desktop that provide easy information, like cinema listings, weather, stocks, etc etc. But they don’t have this on the iPhone – why? Android’s HTC Hero with Sense Touch by comparison allows you to create muiltiple desktop layouts and drop links or widgets onto them to completely customise your home pages – of which you can scroll left and right to seven of them – and you can create different profiles, ie perhaps one for social blogging, or another for travelling, or another for work.
By comparison, it only just recently that the iPhone has allowed you to place the icons more easilly via Itunes – a god send feature for us that have a crazy mix of apps that need managing. Frankly just having static square icons on the home page of the iPhone is becoming pathetically outdated. Let’s hope v4 for the firmware fixes that.
Another feature of the Android I like is that they allow multiple programs to run simultaneously in the background. Now Apple have a stance this isn’t allowed (whether for battery longeivity, or security) and instead have a notifications system. Usually this works well (especially for instant messager applications) but there are many cases when it simply doesn’t. For instance, I often make calls on my iPhone using Skype. All is ok, unless I press the home button, in which case Skype exits and terminates the call. Simply put you can’t run a program like Skype – and then during the call – use another app to do something else like check your emails etc. Apple will not allow this. There are some rumours that some developers may have some an elite certification process to allow limited background processing but its an outdated policy and one that is again showing its limitations.
The one I really like – as an avid application buyer – is that on Android I have the same seamless purchase experience as I do on Apple, all via Google Checkout via a special Market application akin to the App Store. However, if I don’t like the app once I’ve bought it, I can click to return it and have a full refund within the first 24 hours. Should I purchase it again after a refund I can no longer return it. WOW! Now I can go try apps keep those I like and then refund those I don’t.
Android also has Exchange Activesync built right in; so can push your emails, contacts, calendar straight from your microsoft servers, and as you would expect has a plethora or fully connected Google services.
So I have a love hate relationship with my iPhone. Simplicity, music, media, and some cool apps, but the core User interface is really really starting to show its age and really starting to look uncool. The android, particularly those with HTC’s Touch Sense, are simply amazing.
Interesting is that the same Touch Sense technology is bring ported to Windows Mobile on the HTC HD2.
Apple could do a lot to learn from this once obscure company that like Apple combines hardware and software into a unique very compelling experience.
Which raise the question, am I in love with the Touch Sense interface or the Android? Probably both – the way they combine with the Android Market and Apps is very nice.
Its just a pity that the Android phone has taken so long to get to become mainstream in the US. There are many reasons why this is the case, but with “Cupcake” now out (love the software codenames!), and “Donut” making it now into the phone this platform is now mature.
Will it kill the iPhone – no, never – but competition is good, and I believe it will give the iPhone a good run for its money. The iPhone needs a serious contender and for my money needs a good kicking in terms of its home user interface.
Perhaps my love affair with my new Palm Pre will take me in a new direction – after hearing so much about it in the US, I couldn’t resist to see what the fuss was about not its launced in UK. Perhaps more on that later.
Nick
http://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasdavies
And for more on Gartner research on the future of Android – click through to here….
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9139026/Android_to_grab_No._2_spot_by_2012_says_Gartner
N
Very complete update by Scobleizer on 8 Nov 2009
Oh dear – looks like droid is having a hard time..
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5AJ1EU20091120
…hopefully vendors will get out the later updates out quicker, which includes a new app store that has screen shots of programs you going to buy (even though you can refund within 24 hours)
But as we all know the games industry is a powerful driver – and I would argue the primary driver – of many technology platforms and computing advances. Why on earth else would we have 3Ghz processors in our MS Word and MS Excel PC’s (or for Peter on his Keynote and Pages PC) so its a shame that Android may be loosing out to this important driver.
By way of an update to my earlier post: my love affair with the Pre has unfortunately lastly only slightly longer than a day. It’s an awful device. Period.
The WebOS may have some interesting features but its not intuitive, has far too few options layered too deep in application specific menus (ie data roaming is controlled in a menu hidden inside telephone settings – not internet or some other more logical place like the phone control panel) and lacking many many basic features (like handling date based exceptions on IMAP SSL keys – it just fails, rather than provide a warning!) Useless.
Good attempt but poorly executed and the store is rubbish compared to the iPhone. As content is king (and Apple seem to be the content masters for media and apps – oh and games it would seem) I predict the Palm will no longer be with us in several months, despite its multi-tasking OS (more so if Apple release enhanced multi0tasking iPhoneOS v4 which is a foundation of the upcoming tablet)
To support thr Reuters post it’s also interesting that Nintendo has also (perhaps this should say ‘is still’) taking a massive battering from the iPhone and iPod Touch. I recently toyed with buying the new PSPgo but why bother when the games are like £40 a pop, when games on iPhone are like 99p. I don’t play a lot of games anyway, and being a retro gamer, don’t have much patience or enough time for those games that are more complex than point and shoot or gobble little dots, so the iPhone/iPod Touch fills that perfectly and at a significantly lower price point.
They are innovative – as the Wii clearly shows – but maybe they have met their match with the iPhone/iPod touch. I smell product death in the air.
N
2010 is already shaping up to be a stellar year for digital mobility and this is before the mythical iSlate announcement.
So 1 in 5 smart phone users wants a Droid phone, and WinMo satisfaction is lagging behind everybody else – including Pre users (says a lot given how basic the Pre is – no wonder HTC put in such effort with their amazing Touch Flo and Sense user interfaces (TAKE NOTE APPLE!). Let’s hope WinMo 7 is everything people need it to be otherwise Microsoft is in for a rocky road ahead. Quite a turn around in the past few months.
http://www.changewaveresearch.com/articles/2010/01/smart_phone_20100104.html
But…expect that number to rise now that the Nexus has been announced:
http://www.google.com/phone
NNNNN
PS. I also want one to replace my Hero, but my iPhone is still king for Apps and content!
Ok – I couldn’t resist. It’s ordered.
If anybody wants a 3 month old HTC Hero unlocked; send me an email.