I think the Nexus One is a great move for the smartphone industry. I think by having Google leading the Android charge, they’re driving competition forward, creating a smartphone OS that can seriously compete with the iPhone for features and functionality. It’s also going to give Microsoft a big kick up the backside to make them really do something with WinMo 7.
But then there’s the other side. The side that says Google’s dipping its toes into too many pies. That they are, to quote a mainstream news outlet, “a company bent on world domination”.
So which do you think it is? Is the Google phone good for competition, or is Google destined to appear on the upcoming show When Corporations attack: What turns big companies evil?
h3ggz
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 4:14 PMIt will be great for competition. It’s about time the iphone had a real competitor.
MDolley
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 4:39 PMI would gladly let Google take over the world. Can’t really stuff it up much more than democracy is. Plus, no more stupid election ads
Jimmy
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 5:02 PMWord is from my Google friend is that Google dont actually care if in a few months this is the worst thing that is going around. Their main objective is to really push the whole thing forward (android and hardware) by introducing the best phone they could right now. So it seems kinda like its almost a giant pr stunt almost.
ed
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 7:49 PMI’m all for competition – Go Google! – but I’m also all for standards, even if pseudo. I would beg for them to adopt the iphone’s connector so that the thousands of existing peripherals could also be used (abeit, perhaps with some extra coding). The LAST thing I want is to say is “gee I wanted to get one, but I had to get an iphone instead because I wanted a nice bedside docking station”.
Stefan
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 10:04 AMAdopt the iPhone connector I THINK NOT. there is a big push (and many companies are already doing it.. is to use Mini USB as it’s connector (and yes the Nexus One has this) if anything Apple should move to THAT Standard and not their proprietary connector.
Jeremy
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 11:08 PMStrictly the Nexus One has a Micro-B USB which is the new standard charging port (EU mandated, and accepted by Apple, Motorla, Nokia, LG, RIM, Samsung and Sony Ericsson). Amongst other features it has a higher lifetime for insertion/removals (10,000 vs 5,000 for Mini-USB or 1,500 for standard USB).
Sam Pryor
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 8:04 PMIt would only be evil if they were selling these at a huge loss in order to dominate the market, but they aren’t, 650ish AUD is about the same as an iphone(plus the apple tax).
Competition As.
justsomejavaguy
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 9:49 PMI don’t think Google is “dipping its toes into too many pies”.
But I do think that if Google can hit that bullseye then the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards… Checkmate.
Troglodyte
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 10:07 PMGoogle phone – world domination? Um hello have a look at Apple with the iPhone. It’s more likely that Apple will try to sue google over the phone. That will be the upcoming show When Corporations attack!
David
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 11:44 PM“It’s also going to give Microsoft a big kick up the backside to make them really do something with WinMo 7.”
No, Apple gave Microsoft a big kick up the backside after the sales figures proved the success of the iPhone to make them really do something with WinMo 7. Google’s Nexus One is not the inspiration for Microsoft to deliver with WinMo 7.
Jose
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 12:56 AMI don’t think this has anything to do with Google taking over the Android platform. Apparently there were Motorola executives at the press conference indicating that perhaps this is more of a thrust by Google to centralize the whole process.
I’ve heard that this represents more of a marketplace for the distrubution of phones, whether they be Motorola, HTC, Samsung or otherwise.
Indeed some in the Whirlpool forums were saying that there is specific language in the contract which stresses that the N1 is a HTC phone and not a “Google phone”.
Anonymous
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 1:22 AMThe “Apple tax” phrase you used was originally coined by Microsoft for the alleged additional IT costs associated with administration of a Mac to that of a PC in business environments.
What you’re actually referring to is, “paying slightly more for a well designed product than for a shit one.”
Sam Pryor
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 8:41 AM“What you’re actually referring to is, “paying slightly more for a well designed product than for a shit one.””
Mr.Fawkes, are you saying the N1 is “shit” ?
To me it looks very well designed and is still at a reasonable price. In your mind, how is it that Google and HTC can make a phone that is comparable to the iPhone without these extra costs?
Fordi
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 8:13 AMI think their long term strategy will be a lot scarier. This seems like some kind of ‘pilot’ process. I still suspect they will release a heavily subsidised phone in the not too distant future. A bunch of people will be screaming ‘evil’ at that point.
Vin
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 10:31 AMthe N1 is only as good for competition as its ability to accommodate the users bottom line. it looks great, and probably feels great. But where the iphone succeeds is it’s ability to harvast an exponentially growing vault of apps that users of all levels can interface with easily.
Now, i have no experience with androids, which for me would simulate most consumers out there. I trust Google’s ability to delivery a quality product, however i can’t speak intelligently about my ability to easily access and load apps onto an N1, should i ever buy one.
i had a HTC, running winMo6, and it was possibly the most tedious experience i’ve ever had with a mobile (sorry, not your fault HTC). i bought it, knowing well that i could load 3rd party apps onto it. i realised very quickly that no one really made apps for winMo6 (not to the quality and levels of diversity of the iphone)
Where does the market for developers stand?
How easy is it to interface with the N1 from the general consumers end?
for me, these are the two main criteria for a true iphone killer
Sam Pryor
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 10:52 AMI have an HTC hero, running Android 1.5, and to install apps you click on the Market icon, choose an app, and choose install. Then it downloads and installs automatically.
The N1 is running Android 2.1, and I think the process is the same, except that now in the market you can see 2 screen shots of the app in the description.
Namarrgon
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 1:53 PMHaving owned WinMob phones for years, I’m well aware of their limitations – using them is almost always painful. They especially suffer in comparison to the iPhone (I own an iPod Touch too).
But if there’s one thing WM does well, it’s flexibility – there are thousands of different apps, many for things that Apple still frown on, like wifi tethering. My WM phone was doing voip and turn-by-turn navigation before the first iPhone existed. So I persist.
The problem is, WM has (had) no central app store, so there was no easy way to find the apps that were out there other than word-of-mouth. Various third-party stores exist but are fragmented, undescriptive and hard to use. It’s ironic that the iPhone’s biggest strength is one that Apple insisted we didn’t need (for a year, anyway).
David Hughes
Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 8:08 PMGoogle really are making a lot of enemies. Apple’s downfall was because it failed to partner with other companies. Since it has started partnering with people it has became a success. I believe part of the iPhones success was because they partnered with people like Yahoo (the most popular email service) so people could easily set up their existing email on their phones. Partnering with companies like Google to make YouTube and Maps possible. Partnering with Microsoft to make Office for Mac and Exchange for the iPhone.
Google is taking on Microsoft and Apple head-on. It is also not making any friends in publishing, news, governments, video producers… and now it stands to damage its relationship with handset manufacturers.
Google has become to confident, thinking it can do anything. Partnering creates great products, not doing the whole she-bang. Google will have a lot on its plate which is great when the money is rolling in from AdSense (90% of its money in fact) but someone just has to to a better search engine or Google gets some bad PR and Google’s whole empire will fall faster than it rose.
If Google wants to last another decade then it is going to have to start making more friends and figure out how to make money in other places rather than just being the one-trick pony it is at the moment.