According to TechCrunch the official “Google Phone” is currently being tested and expected to launch as soon as January 2010. This new phone will be an actual “Google branded” device (even though it’s made by HTC) in which every aspect of the OS will be designed by Google, to create a more solid user experience, unlike their other Android phones which have some input from the manufacturers.
Some of its highlighted features
- Will be sold as an unlocked GSM phone and distributed directly by Google
- Android 2.1 (unreleased at this point)
- Uses Snapdragon chip which is “really, really fast”
- High resolution OLED screen
- Thinner than iPhone (battery life anyone?)
- Two mics, one on the back to reduce background noise
- “Weirdly” large camera
- Touchscreen keyboard
- Voice to text for dictation
Honestly, I don’t see how an official “Google Phone” can be that much different than all the other devices that are currently running the Android OS. Supposedly it’s a big deal that they designed the whole software behind the phone to every last detail, without being limited or influenced by the manufacturer in terms of features and UI like with their other phones, similarly to what Apple does with the iPhone and their other products. But there’s one big flaw with that concept: it’s still one more Android device, different from all the others available now, with slightly different software limitations and capabilities.
Why is that a problem?
One of the things, in my opinion, that truly made the iPhone a big deal was the App Store and the fact that apps run pretty much the same way on each device running the iPhone OS is a big part of that experience. The fact that there’s only one device made by one manufacturer (with slight changes on each generation, of course) with the same native OS means developers don’t have to fix bugs that are particular to one device, they don’t have to modify their apps to work on different handsets and they don’t have to choose to invest their sometimes scarce resources on the device that’s more popular. A “Google Phone” just makes the Android app market ever so slightly more fragmented, makes the developers job a bit more complex with one more device to support (or possibly not support) and it’s one step further from the seamless experience offered by Apple and the iPhone.
I don’t think this will be a bad device, far from it. I just don’t think there’s anything truly remarkable that sets it apart from all the other devices running Android. Actually I think the only true advantage of the “Google Phone” is the fact that it will be carrier-free and unlocked from the start. Am I the only one?
UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that the “Google phone” has an official name of “Nexus One”.
December 13th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
When it comes to android, android users are just as passionate about their android phones as apple users are to their iPhones. I have both an android device and an iPhone. I prefer my android device over the iPhone though. Were I don’t see a big deal with the “Google Phone” I think android users are excited because they finally get to see googles full take on the platform.
That being said, many developers are going to android because their isn’t so much an issue with support for the phones, they main thing they really need to add for support is for the customized builds of the platform, that really isn’t necessary though either. Android is Android where ever it is, on any phone. The advantage of having so many android devices comes from being able to actually pick out a phone that is right for you instead of what one company wants you to have like apple does with it’s iPhone. Android is really built around the user and usability and for the user to be able to completely customize, which is not able to do on an iPhone.
The market place is growing, and growing fast, it is easier to develop for android, and if a fix is out for an application on android, you get it immediately. There is no middle man when it comes to apps in the market place, no approval process.
I can talk about android all day. I love it, But I think the google phone is over rated and will be way over hyped, just like the apple “Tablet” is being way over hyped, if we even see a tablet from apple.
December 13th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
I know that Android is Android but the difficulty comes from the fact that different devices have different versions of Android available. The Droid was released with 2.0 and the Eris, which came out around the same time, will only get it around 2010. That causes compatibility issues in terms of apps and makes life harder for developers and for the consumer. There were also a lot of complaints from developers with the compatibility issues between 1.5 and 1.6.
With the iPhone is different, when a new OS update comes out it comes out for all the devices.
December 13th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
The same is true with the iPhone as with Android. When a new SDK is available you need to start using the new SDK. Many developers immediately start using the new SDK as soon as it is out, If a developer does that, their application will work on all platforms. If today I built an iPhone app using the iPhone 2.1 SDK it would not work on any iPhone that is upgraded to 3.0. However if the iPhone 4.0 SDK came out today, I would develop my application with that and it would work all the way down. Backwards compatibility is built into the SDK’s. It is up to the developers to stop having sloppy code and to use the latest SDK. I have 1.5 on my HTC Hero. I run applications that are built on the android 2.0 SDK. That is how these things work, Especially in todays rapid moving technological world.
December 13th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
But with the iPhone people can always upgrade to the latest OS, which is available for everyone. It’s not the same with Android: 2.0 is only available for the Droid if I’m not mistaken.
So if an app is built for 2.0 and only runs on 2.0 a consumer with the Eris for example has no choice but to wait until Android 2.0 is available for his specific handset. Someone with the iPhone doesn’t have that problem, they can always run the latest OS and its apps (except when there’s hardware limitations of course).
Yes, it’s true that developers should always try to make their apps backwards-compatible but that is not always possible.
March 27th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Do you have any experience developing apps for iPhone/Android?
Though so, peace.
April 20th, 2010 at 7:30 am
Wow!This is a very nice post.I am learning a lot from this one.Very informative. Looking forward for your new post. Thank you very much!