Ex-Google Mobile Product Manager Nails the G1 with Good Reason
Ulf Waschbusch, who was Google’s Mobile Product Manager until he recently left for MySpace Mobile, thinks the T-Mobile G1 sucks for a variety of reasons. He also points out the good stuff, but after seeing what’s wrong in terms of interface, enterprise integration, data plan and its other flaws, especially compared with the competition, I absolutely agree with his views:
It’s funny – but the first time I heard about Android was about 2.5 years ago, when Eric Schmidt told me about the device at Stanford after I got a job offer from Google (yet before I accepted it!). Since then I have seen many iterations of the software. The software. Not the device itself, because sadly it hasn’t changed much in a while. (Not sure how long). The reason many people see the G1 as ugly and old-fashioned is simply… because it IS! It’s a design unchanged for a while (it’s now available in Zune-brown along with white and black). The hardware itself though went through many iterations I am sure, as it’s top-notch (3G on AWS, GPS, 3MP autofocus camera etc.).
Indeed. The device is a lame-looking brick and doesn’t seem to have much appeal to consumers. He also expressed his frustrations with other aspects of the G1 in his Facebook status.
Ulf is disappointed but not surprised about the ‘G1′. Where’s the cheap data plan? Where do I plug in my headphones? No video player? How do I get contacts in it?
Right again. While some have speculated that he’s talking out of bitterness–I guess that’s easier to do than to accept the criticism–the fact is that he acknowledges the good, the bad, and the ugly in a fair way. Certainly, this is not the iPhone/BlackBerry challenger consumers were hoping for. [ulfw via BGR]
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
I have our Cabinet members on Blackberry with a BES because they truly only need Exchange connectivity and the BB is rock solid. I gave my BB up for a WinMo device and then dropped that for the iPhone for work purposes. I do have a G1 for my side business and I love it. If I could only have one device I would go for an Android device for what it can do now and what it will grow into.
That said, it really comes down to business or personal requirements. The iPhone has a really slick interface and G1 is getting better (I’m eager for the 1.5 Cupcake release). The iPhone set the stage for what is now in the market and what is coming and it has been around a while so the offerings are more mature. The offerings for Android get better every week and it can already do pretty much everything I need it to do.
I love the keyboard and the ability to multitask pretty efficiently on the G1. I am obsessed with operational efficiency at work, on my laptop and in all I do so the G1 is a great fit for me when I can be on a call and hit the key combo ‘Search + C’ and go right to my Contacts or ‘Search + B’ and go right to my browser and so on… i.e. I can get precisely where I need to go with a key combination directly. The battery life is not good but I tether to my laptop or plug it in here and there throughout the day and I have an extra battery.
The next gen Android devices will get better on battery life and more but most of what is in the rumor mill (including the G2) is more like an iPhone with no physical keyboard. That is a deal breaker for me. I don’t have to switch virtual keyboards to do letters, numbers & special characters And half my viewable screen is not lost real estate when using my keyboard. I have recently seen a next gen G1 that doesn’t have the ‘chin’ and reportedly has better battery life. That would be the phone to have.
I am sure other functions like Copy / Cut / Paste / Select All will be common features in the near future so the playing field will be leveled in critical areas while the vendors strive to differentiate their products with other features and functionality.
I’ve not found the perfect solution but my preference is the G1 for now.
Lastly a great phone with poor coverage doesn’t add much value so reception is a key point. I am looking forward to the TMo 3G network in the Lehigh Valley of the State (just north of Philadelphia). Allentown is our third largest city so I’d like to think we’re on the list. I’ve heard from a TMo source that it is looking like end of Q3 or even Q4 09.
iPhone caches the GAL for Exchange which is great. Touchdown doesn’t do that yet but I’m asking the dev to consider it. Better yet, my brick of a phone (HTC XV6800 running WinMo) could filter my Inbox on the fly meaning as I type G-I-Z it filtered my Inbox list to only those items matching the ‘on-the-fly’ search. I have a G1 and an iPhone and sorely miss that feature on both… for now.
Probably more than you were looking for but that is my two cents and then some. ;-)