It’s time for The VAR Guy to eat a little crow. A few weeks ago, our resident blogger predicted that Google Android — the new mobile operating environment — would arrive late to market with reduced features. He was wrong on both accounts. The first Android device, called G1, ships soon. And early reviews are positive.
T-mobile will introduce the first Android device — known as the G1 — on October 22 priced at $179 with a two-year contract. Impressive. So impressive, in fact, that even Apple fan Walt Mossberg thinks the G1 could be a hit.
The Wall Street Journal’s Mossberg has tested the G1 and praises Google on many points.
In his blog, Mossberg writes:
Google’s new G1 phone announced today is the first real competitor to the iPhone. Like Apple’s product, it’s a serious handheld computer with a powerful new operating system (called Android) and a clever touch-based user interface. Like the iPhone, it’s likely to be a major new platform for third-party software. But it’s also very different, and may appeal to different buyers.
Somewhere, The VAR Guy is blushing from embarrassment. In August, our resident blogger predicted that Android would miss the mark (at least initially) and would suffer from multiple delays and feature cuts.
Tags: Google Android | Google G1 | iPhone vs. Android | T-mobile G1 | The Wall Street Journal | Walt Mossberg
Interact: Add a Comment | Trackback Link | Permalink
Share: digg | del.icio.us | Technorati | StumbleUpon
Subscribe: RSS Feed
_3.gif "ManageEngine")
Predictions are indeed a tricky business VAR Guy, so kudos for the admission.
I’ve made it a rule to never underestimate Google - they’ve made me eat crow once or twice myself. So when they say they’re going to put data centers in the ocean, I don’t even snicker.
Mike: Thanks for the kind words. The VAR Guy finished up the crow last night and will be moving on to new predictions later today. Let’s hope his new forecasts are a bit more accurate than the Android predictions.
Yea.. put my order in on drop date, let my t-mobile contract expire since about 6 months ago just waiting for this — whether it was on t-mobile or any other carrier. I really wanted the OpenMoko too be a hit but still too buggy is what I hear (for an everyday phone, this is unacceptable), plus no pull out keyboard — to me thats where the G1 just tops it off. The touchscreen is nice but I really would enjoy a hardware keyboard better.
I hope that Android phones will be available from ALL providers, not just T-Mobile…
Let the battle between the iphone and Android begin.
HowtoForge: T-Mobile is an interesting first move for Android, because sooo many of us use T-Mobile WiFi services. But you are correct - watch for Android to land on a range of devices later this year and early 2009.
In your other post you said we would chat on 12/31 .. glad it didn’t take that long.
Great to see your admission. Keep up the great work, you Google fanboy ( way better than Apple fanboy .. sorry about that
Android will rule ( once people can put their own “distros” on their phones .. without big brother Google ).
But I think the G1 is not as small&beautiful as my O2 Diamond .. so I will wait for an Android port ( xda-developers are on it ).
I have recently picked up a G1 and must say, it’s a great device. There are a few things that are not making technogeeks happy though. Since it’s a carrier locked phone, there are restrictions in place on the device. The major one being root access… which kills the potential for serious modification. What is a Linux distro without root access.
I love the slide mechanism, it feels sturdy and secure. Having a hardware keyboard is also a great plus. The possibility for data corruption is greatly reduced over the Windows Mobile OS. I remember many times having to wipe the device to factory settings on WM 2003-6.0 all because one little file on the device went corrupt and hosed the thing. The worst problems I’ve had with the G1 was to force close a frozen application and reboot. Neither of which were detrimental to my saved and stored information.
And in response to Tom above, there is already a Debian distro made for the G1 that has been tested (I am in the process of adding it in this week). Right now it does not replace Android but is more of a complimentary OS mounted on the SD Card. So it’s only a matter of time before good ones can be found and used to utilize all of the phone’s potential. I can’t wait! The info about the Debian + Android can be found here (http://www.saurik.com/id/10).