I really want Google and Android to succeed, esp. against the iPhone, but I'm just not seeing it in these devices - the scrolling isn't instantaneously responsive as it is on the iPhone, the keyboard and drop down styling is a cheap ripoff of the iPhone... this just isn't going to cut it. And a proprietary headset? Really?
I am really interested to see where Andriod devices go in the marketplace. I really like my iPhone but would happily consider an Android phone if it offered the same level of hardware/software integration and polish of operating system I enjoy with the iPhone. I think the biggest struggle for Google may be providing that experience since they do not manufacture the hardware.
If Mac, Windows and Linux are anything to go by, no one else will really make something quite as nice as the iPhone. What they will do is make things that are good enough looking, open enough, and diverse enough, that they will grab segments of the market that Apple will never even go after. That's my hope at least, I'm just not interested in being locked into Apple's world. And the fact that Android is open source is seriously cool for people who want to really do interesting things.
It's a non-standard port, but you can use standard headsets with an adapter (which T-Mobile is now distributing with the phone). It's an HTC thing, not an Android thing; HTC did the same on their Windows Mobile devices.
I'm not sure what to make of "the keyboard and drop down styling is a cheap ripoff of the iPhone"... Is the problem that it's too similar to the iPhone or that it's not similar enough?
These sorts of silly limitations will drop away as manufacturers other that HTC start to make Android devices.
As far as Android "succeeding" against the iPhone, I am not sure that it will in the near term-- and I am not even sure that it matters. However, I think it will succeed against every other phone OS, and rapidly at that.
