Thanks for helping to keep The VAR Guy honest. Generally speaking, The VAR Guy is opinionated and plugged into the market — but he’s willing to admit when he’s dead wrong.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10048655-1.html

1) Vaporware comments dismissed – Check
2) Release date – Second half of ‘08 – Check
3) Bluetooth is going to be there, just not stereo – Check
4) Bugs… as I have yet to see “perfect” software from release date (Even WarhammerOnline after years of prep and beta testing has flaws), I am going to give the OS the benefit of the doubt and call it better than MS.

And think.. this is just the TMobile encarnation. Just wait until other carriers get their hands on it! As far as eating crow, I have heard it doesn’t taste so well. So skip the crow and join me in a slice of technolgical goodness instead.

1) Annouce Vaporware : They said second half of 2008. Still leaving us months to go. Let’s not quite call it vaporware when in fact it is just impatience.

2) Dance around launch dates : Second half of 2008. While speculation has been around stating this month and that month, and even now some “rumors” have mentioned early ‘09… we still have a good portion of “second half of 2008″ to go. Again, before the stoning begins, let’s at least wait for a crime.

3) Time for a trim : “Reports are swirling” yet while these reports may be 100% true, I must point out once again “second half of 2008″. Keep your rants and flames ready to go for Jan 01. Until then it’s hard to complain that something promised isn’t in the package when the package isn’t even on sale yet.

4) Ship, then hype : Ever purchased any electronics ever?! Hmm, Laserdisk will be the future of movies… oh have you seen these awesome DVD’s?… BlueRay for life!! If a company put out one product and then stopped improving we would be toasting our bread over coals. Even the all powerful iphone has just put out an upgrade! (And they are even thinking about *heaven forbid* improving on that as well!!)

Like BobCFC hinted at, it’s tough to have an opensource project which involves pretty much any company that would like to participate, and not have ideas announced, and projected results hinted at and dates tossed around by countless people. But until those dates actually pass, and a product surfaces or sinks, everything is simply a rumor. It may turn out to be the best phone we have ever seen (for the moment) or it may turn out to be Googles biggest mistake to date. Either way, second half of 2008 still trudges on.

Maybe it’s just because it’s not an internal project but a coordination between hundreds of companies?

I will still give them the benefit of the doubt, for now.

@Josvazg: The VAR Guy has heard from quite a few folks who worry that Android will be more closed than open…

Well, my opinion is that this tricks get old and will have a lesser impact, as people now see them coming from the start.

The important stuff here is what you can deliver NOW and ALSO HOW REALLY OPEN (and OPENSOURCED) your platform is.

Let them play, if someone else comes with something that delivers more before them and is more open they will be in trouble. But it does not seem so for the time being, others deliver less or their platforms are TOO CLOSED.

Stick to the facts:

1. They said they will ship second half of 2008. So they are still on time. On the 12/31/08 you can repost this again and it might be valid.
2. Android 1.0 will only miss the _APIs_ for accessing Bluetooth. BT will be there. APIs will probably come with an update.

This post makes you seem as Apple fan boy with FUD in mind. You can do better than that.