

Is Anyone Buying the Googlephone? - walterk
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/22/is-anyone-buying-the-googlephone/

======
SwellJoe
I bought one, and it's awesome. It's obvious, to me, that this is going to be
a slow burn product, but burn, it will...in a year, there will be a dozen
Android phones, spread from low end to high, and the market will begin to look
drastically different. Apple will likely find themselves in the same boat they
were in two decades ago going up against the ridiculous variety of PC
compatible machines, with a single somewhat pricey product. Apple is about to
be engaged in war on a dozen fronts, and I suspect that it won't be able to
withstand the onslaught (sales of iPhone may continue upward, since the smart
phone market is growing so fast, but I think its market share can only go down
from here, if they use the same playbook that used for Macintosh vs. PC).

~~~
jm4
I've got one too and I'm very happy with it. I've used the iPhone quite a bit
and it's ok. So far I like the G1 better. The buttons on the front and the
scroll ball make it a little easier to navigate around. The standard
applications work well. I like how the notification bar works. I was surprised
at how much was already in the Android Market on day one. It seems like some
of them are also on the iPhone, but there are some exclusives too. Locale is
an especially cool application that isn't possible on the iPhone. There are
quite a few that make use of the GPS. One that I found amusing, although still
innovative, is iSafe. Among other things it can alert you when you enter a
high crime neighborhood or when there is a registered sex offender nearby.
Call quality and reception are generally good. I like how the screen
automatically locks when I put the phone up to my ear during a call. Overall,
I'm impressed by it. I had expected it to be much less polished than it is.
It's also not nearly as ugly as it looks in the pictures. It's actually kind
of nice looking in a minimalist way.

I do have a few gripes, though. First is battery life. I expected it would be
mediocre, but it's downright terrible. I have to recharge it in the middle of
the day. The silver lining here is that the battery is removable so I can
carry a spare with me. I really hope they come out with a higher capacity
battery soon. Another part that could have been better is the keyboard. The
keys are just a little too flat and feel just a bit spongy. It's not a bad
keyboard by any means, but I would prefer one more like the Sidekick.
Multitouch would be a nice plus too.

It's also worth saying something about the first paragraph of the NYT article.
The author says there was no one waiting in line at the store for the G1.
That's because we didn't need to. People who preordered the G1 had it
delivered. I even had mine delivered a day early. I'm not sure that there
would be people lining up otherwise, but it's still a little misleading.

~~~
andreyf
_The author says there was no one waiting in line at the store for the G1._

This just pisses me off - it encourages companies like Apple to hype up a
product and then slowly sell it in three locations in all of NYC. The news
isn't that people want an iPhone, the news is that Apple can be a dick to
their customers for publicity and they put up with it.

~~~
jm4
Good point. This has been going on a very long time too. It's not reserved
just for Apple products. Video games are a prime example. I remember this
stuff going on back when I was playing NES. It really pissed me off when they
created artificial shortages when the original Zelda and Double Dragon were
released. And don't forget about the GMail launch when it was invitation only.
This kind of thing is just another tool in the standard marketing toolbox.

~~~
mdasen
There can be actual shortages. Take Gmail as an example. Such a service
requires a lot of resources - storage, computing power, support staff. . .
It's a lot easier to provide those things for 100,000 people than for 10M
people. The invites provided them a way of ramping up rather than having to
meet all of the demand on day 1. It also allowed them to see exactly where
they needed to optimize before they got millions of users.

If it was just a marketing thing, why didn't Yahoo and Microsoft roll out
their increased storage all at once? No, those two increased their storage
gradually because it's the only practical way. By limiting invites, Google got
to increase storage in a similar, gradual way.

With Apple, many stores were at fire-code capacity when the iPhone came out.
Apple didn't sell out of iPhones at most locations. The lines were due to the
fact that Apple can only have so many people in a store at any given time
because we can't have two different pieces of matter occupying the same space
at the same time. So, trash Apple if you want, but the lines were real. More
people wanted to get a peak at the iPhone than the stores had capacity to fit
people in.

I think the iPhone is a defective device and want an Android phone when my
carrier gets one, but one needs to be objective: the iPhone generated buzz
that the G1 isn't. There are many factors including the relative size of
T-Mobile and AT&T and the fact that the original iPhone allowed AT&T users to
buy new wherever they were in their contract while the G1 mandates in-contract
users have to pay an additional $220. The fact remains, the iPhone generated
buzz that the G1 hasn't. The lines were real. People were excited.

~~~
jm4
No one here is trashing anyone. Maybe you misunderstood. I am also aware that
there are real shortages, particularly when hardware requiring new
manufacturing processes is involved. But the fact is that artificial shortages
are a commonly used marketing tactic and that is the point the parent poster
and I were trying to make. The article implies that the lack of lines and
shortages is the result of a lack of interest. That may not necessarily be the
case.

There are plenty of reasons why there isn't much hype around the G1 and you've
pointed a couple of them out. I think it's also obvious that Android, and
particularly the G1, were not marketed nearly as heavily as the iPhone. It
also may be that the iPhone has achieved critical mass and people just aren't
interested in the knock-offs that are coming out now.

Your statement about in-contract users having to pay an additional $220 is
incorrect - at least it was a few weeks ago when I ordered mine. At the time I
preordered I believe it was $199 for new customers. I was still in contract
and mine came out to about $338 with some BS activation fee and sales tax. I
did notice that the G1 is $179 now so that may have changed.

------
walterk
_Just a couple talking to a salesman who too was figuring out how to work the
new mobile phone which is powered by Google’s new Android operating system._

This line in particular makes me realize something important: All of the media
exposure that the iPhone got, including (and especially) the iPhone ads,
effectively acted as tutorials on how to use the device long before someone
actually bought one.

Pre-launch consumer exposure to the Android interface, however, hasn't been
anywhere close to what the iPhone received. That's partly because the iPhone
sucked up the novelty factor, but has there even been a memorable advertising
campaign for the G1 in which the interface is front and center?

~~~
netcan
that kind of thing is apple's speciality. Hard to beat them on that turf.

But it's easier (and cheaper) to follow. Once people know (from the iphone)
what a phone is supposed to do, they'll be able to get other phones to do it
too.

~~~
unalone
Out of curiosity, are you speaking as somebody who's used Android? I'd like to
know how similar the two interfaces are.

~~~
lacker
They're pretty similar. Both have a home screen with icons for programs, a
button to return to it, and a similar touch-screen web-browsing interface.

Notable interface differences are the slide-out keyboard on the G1, two-touch
zoom gesture on the iPhone, the hardware "back" button on the G1, and the
"system-tray" at the top of the G1 that notifies you when a background process
has something to say, like you just got a chat or an email or a download
finished.

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wensing
How ridiculously easy to use is the G1? For example, how many clicks does it
take to capture a photo and email it to a friend?

On my iPhone I count 6 clicks to get into the "To:" field in the email, and
then 1 more click to Send.

And where is the G1's "display" appeal? As O'Reilly once said (when thinking
about ringtones), people will pay more for display than consumption. For many
(me not included?), the Apple logo on your phone is a personal exhibition of
good taste. What does the G1 do for a person in this regard?

~~~
jcl
It depends on how you have the phone set up and how well you know it. The
obvious way:

\- One tap to open the menu of applications

\- One tap to open the camera application

\- One press of the camera button

\- One tap to choose to share the picture

\- One tap to choose gMail (vs. messaging)

At this point you are in the To field, but you need to slide open the keyboard
to type the address in. So it is essentially the same "number of interactions"
as the iPhone. If you're a power user or curious, you might have figured out
that you can also launch the camera application directly by pressing the
camera button, which collapses the first two steps to one.

...Which highlights one of the strengths and weaknesses of the Android
platform. While the iPhone has just a few inputs (the screen and main button
being the obvious ones), the G1 has many (screen, five main buttons,
trackball, the keyboard, and the keyboard slide). This gives the G1 more (and
potentially faster) ways to do things, but it also means that the user may not
always be able to guess which input is required to accomplish their goals. The
G1 apps are pretty good about telling the user when they need to do something
out-of-the-ordinary -- the camera app, for example, points out the camera
button on the casing -- but third-party applications may not be as careful, or
they may neglect to handle all possible inputs in an Android-consistent
manner.

I think it's a difference of philosophy, much like the difference between
Apple's preference of a one-button mouse versus the preference of multiple-
button mice on other platforms. One button is easier for users to learn and
developers to implement consistently, but more buttons let you do more stuff.

------
STHayden
Not only are my wife and I planning on getting one but I can name about four
others who are also planning on getting one.

For a lot of people price is really an issue. But I still think that Andriod
is just a better phone system.

~~~
unalone
What makes you think it's a better system? And what sort of people are those
others who want to get the Android? Are they tech-focused? Because it seems to
me that Android has the advantage there, but that it's got nothing that
appeals to consumers. Not like the iPhone has.

~~~
jm4
What do you think the iPhone has that Android doesn't have? As someone who has
used an iPhone and now owns the G1 I can tell you that they are incredibly
similar. A friend and I were comparing the two side by side. Most of the
applications are comparable and in some cases we both had installed the same
exact applications from the respective App Stores. I doubt most average people
would know the difference if they were using Android in an iPhone case or the
other way around. The two platforms have far more in common than you may
think.

The Android SDK allows for some more possibilities than what is allowed on the
iPhone, but this seems to be purely a business decision on the part of Apple.
As far as features that appeal to consumers - branding and fads aside - I
think it's pretty much a wash. The big difference is Apple's far superior
marketing.

------
starrwarrior
Android is a step in the right direction for phone software, hopefully there
will be more official devices sporting it.

------
paul9290
Umm its on T-Mobile and their 3G coverage pales in comparison to Verizon and
At&T.

Definitely want one, but am waiting!

~~~
jm4
I haven't used Verizon, but I have used ATT and currently have a G1 with
T-Mobile. Data speed has always been better with ATT, but the rest leaves a
lot to be desired in my opinion. That said, the speed on T-Mobile isn't as bad
as I thought it would be. On my old phone data speed was atrocious, but it's
pretty usable on the G1. What's interesting is that I live in an area that
T-Mobile claims does not have 3G, but in many of the places I go the phone
says I'm on 3G.

It's probably worth noting that T-Mobile costs quite a bit less than Verizon
and ATT. They also offer some neat features like WiFi calling (not on the G1)
that the others don't.

In any case, it really sucks that people who don't like T-Mobile have to wait
to get their hands on Android. I guess the bright side is that it will
eventually be on other carriers unlike the iPhone. I probably would have
gotten one of those long before Android was available had it not been an ATT
exclusive. These carrier exclusives are terrible for consumers, but the
situation only seems to be getting worse.

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weegee
no. was interested to read there is no headphone jack. imagine watching
YouTube on the bus without headphones! you either can't hear any sound, or
bother everyone around you! bzzt - wrong answer, try again Google!

~~~
jcl
There is no headphone jack, but you can apparently use an adapter to plug
standard headphones into the mini-USB jack.

~~~
weegee
ah, excellent, thank you!

------
redorb
the writing style seems super lax for the nytimes , felt more like reading a
blog. The g1 is good the battery is the same issue as the iPhone if you use it
to surf for 5 hours it's going to get low, give it a week then it will last
all day plus ; after the coolness wears a little .

~~~
natrius
It is a blog.

