“So here I was, all excited about Android. Not because the G1’s physical design is especially attractive. In fact, it’s a gray design with no soul. Not because of the user interface, which at first glance reminded me of a mash-up between the Nintendo DS and a ’90s Windows desktop manager. No, I was excited because this is the first post-iPhone smartphone that could be a serious challenger to Apple’s mounting dominance. Then I looked closely at this image and realized the G1 will not pose a threat to Apple at all,” Matt Buchanan reports for Gizmodo.
MacDailyNews Take: If Buchanan was excited that there could be a serious challenger to Apple iPhone because he hopes competition will increase the pace of innovation, then fine. We just hope it’s not because of some underlying issue that some people seem to harbor which goes something like this: “I’m supposed to hate Apple, but not any other companies, for no real reason other than they make the best products, they know they make the best products, and they aren’t afraid to tell the world that they make the best products.”
Buchanan continues, “The problem in this promotional mock-up image is obvious: The analog clock says it’s 9:10 but the digital clock says it’s 2:47.”
“The problem with the clocks would have never escaped Apple’s ferocious attention to detail, but it is not the image itself that’s so troubling. It is what it symbolizes, what is missing at Android’s most fundamental level: Attention to detail,” Buchanan explains.
When using the G1, Buchanan explains, “Typefaces boldly change from place to place, giving a sense of randomness to the whole interface. The same thing happens with color schemes—going from color over white, to color over black, to browns combined with greens and blues, to green over white—and the way the graphic elements are treated—with solid colors or with gradients. Even the shape of the widgets and sizes look arbitrary. Finally, the icons themselves—which get different treatment from flat to fake 3D—add to the overall confusion.”
“Perhaps the explanation for this apparent lack of overall coherence is Android’s Design by Committee nature, something that seems to plague many of Google’s applications and most open-source projects,” Buchanan writes. “Hence the question: How many Google engineers does it take to tell the time?”
Full article, with the images, here.
In another article for Gizmodo, after a photo mockup of the Google G1 exiting the rear end of a cow (we shit you not as we reminisce about our own “Zune Dock” imagery), Buchanan writes of “Android and T-Mobile G1’s Five Most Obnoxious Flaws” which include:
• Contacts and Syncing: There is no desktop syncing app
• Video: There’s no video playback at all right now, except for YouTube
• Hardware Inadequacies: No multi-touch, lack of a headphone jack
• Miscellaneous: SD card required, you have to use the QWERTY keyboard for all text entry which can be annoying, t’s locked to T-Mobile
• T-Mobile obnoxious flaw: If you’re lucky enough to live in one of the markets sprinkled with 3G, after you’ve used 1GB of data, T-Mobile will slow you down to 50Kbps for the rest of the month – that’s slower than EDGE
Full article here.
Linux on the phone will be every bit as successful as Linux on the desktop, for all the same reasons.
Now that I think about it, “Android” is really the best possible name they could have come up with for such a soul-less phone.
I kind of like the thing. No way it’ll ever replace my iPhone, but it will sure eat whatever’s left of Windows’ lunch after Apple gets its fill. Google is a helluva lot more valuable as a competitor than M$. Like the gadget, like the company. Chrome has promise, too.
The G1 Android Phone from T-Mobile has all of the same features as the iPhone from Apple, except for a headphone jack, a multi-touch screen, an accelerometer, Microsoft Exchange support, a virtual keyboard, and 8 or 16GB or storage built-in.
But other than that, it’s got all the same features as the iPhone.
Quote from the full article: “The proof is that the iPhone still lacks several things that consumers want—in theory—but they can live without them because of how polished Apple’s cellphone is, because the attention to all those details, from packaging to user interface.”
This has been Apple’s M.O. for a while now under Steve Jobs. The professional complainers cried at great length about all the features the original iPod didn’t have, and continue to complain in similar fashion about the iPhone (*cough*copypaste*cough*). And yet, apparently, the lack of those “must-have” features doesn’t seem to negatively impact the majority of Apple’s customers.
Which tells me that Apple generally has a very accurate sense of what is and isn’t necessary in their products, and is comfortable ignoring the vocal minority who think otherwise.
“-Mobile obnoxious flaw: If you’re lucky enough to live in one of the markets sprinkled with 3G, after you’ve used 1GB of data, T-Mobile will slow you down to 50Kbps for the rest of the month – that’s slower than EDGE”
WOW, and people complain about AT&T;’s 3G coverage? Sheesh.
However, this just illustrates the point that wireless networks are not built for data (yet). They were designed and established for voice, and then someone thought how cool it would be to get data wirelessly. Not a huge problem until the iPhone came along with it’s ability to watch YouTube, surf the real web, etc.
Now we’re seeing wireless providers having to scramble to improve their service speeds and capabilities after being caught with their pants down. They were too busy figuring out new ways to get teenagers hooked on texting and paying through the nose for it to think ahead at what’s the Next Big Thing.
OMG I was not expecting it to be such a dud…the cow graphic is appropriate.
I knew a girl who had a T-mobile Sidekick 3, and had it mastered, especially since she had a Sidekick 1 & 2. So what’s the point of making something similar, also by T-mobile, whose interface reduces the usability into essentially a Sidekick 1.5?
You hit the nail on the head. While the entire tech media is falling over themselves comparing the G1 to the iPhone, the G1 is really more like a Sidekick than an iPhone and should be thought of as such.
Grok, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. Android isn’t an iPhone killer, but with luck it might be the Windows Mobile killer in the cheap-shit segment of the market.
-jcr
Actually it does have an accelerometer. Not that that really matters.
Well I watched their demo video and the thing couldn’t automatically switch to landscape mode when you turn the device sideways…you have to open the mechanical keyboard to make the display switch. So even if they are including an accelerometer, they’re not using it for anything.
‘ROIDS !!!
hehehe
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@ Growl
Exactly. I fail to see why more pundits haven’t made the same comparison. It’s a much better parallel than the Mac/PC battle in the 80s and 90s.
Hey MDN, I actually think you credited the article to the wrong Gizmodo editor. On Giz it says that Jesus Diaz wrote the article…might wanna make sure when you quote someone you quote the right person…
Should we care? And why?
Why does ANYone expect a company that has arguably the most comprehensive search engine is going to make a great smartphone… OS AND hardware? For either side, it’s a stretch.
I could care less.
The Android appears to be a big yawn generator, at best.
For a first attempt the G1 isn’t bad. Nothing like the polish of an Apple product of course. I imagine v2 will be significantly better.
I can’t believe the thing only had 1 gig. Sure you can buy a larger chip but that will take you over $200 for the phone and extra memory.
um, my iPhone has an analog clock stuck at 10:15 on the home screen
That’s the problem with almost every large company except Apple. When Apple enter a market that is new to them, they (usually) make sure the product is significantly BETTER than anything else currently available. That way, they can gain market share quickly and set a price that allows profits from day one.
Look at iPod, iPhone, and the iTunes Store. You can even go back to Apple’s first wildly successful product, the Apple II. The Macintosh (after the failures that were Apple III and Lisa) was different, because they were already in that market and they were trying to redefine “personal computer.”
Other companies seem to be content with entering the a new market with a marginal product, and trying to improve it over time. That’s THE Microsoft playbook. Google is now doing the same thing. It doesn’t work, because the product line becomes tainted as a failure and it doesn’t turn a profit until an unspecified future date that often never comes. Microsoft and Google may be the only companies who can afford to use this strategy. Actually, Apple can also afford to do it these days, but they (usually) do not as a very conscious choice.
The one time Apple entered a new market and did not have a wildly successful product was with .Mac (now Mobile Me). The product was NOT significantly better than existing products and Apple priced it significantly higher. It’s still available, and I’m a customer, but no one would call it hugely successful.
Which tells me that Apple generally has a very accurate sense of what is and isn’t necessary in their products, and is comfortable ignoring the vocal minority who think otherwise. —Gabriel
Steve Jobs is reputed to have once said that he never asks people what they want because, by the time you give it to them, they want something else. I think Steve Jobs, like all true visionaries, gives people what he thinks they want. What makes him unique is that so many people apparently agree with him, as evidenced by the very healthy sales of Apple’s products.
@alansky
I’d take it a step beyond that: Apple builds what Steve thinks people SHOULD want.
He isn’t always right, but when he is close, it works pretty well.
I think people are being too harsh on the G1. Sure, it has teething problems and I’m sure there’ll be software fixes and themes to address a lot of them (and heck, it isn’t even officially released yet), but it’s still in one swoop been able to surpass decades of Windows Mobile development. I can’t justify paying the £35 a month to get an iPhone on a decent plan here in the UK (thanks a lot, O2), but I still want a reasonable smartphone alternative that isn’t crippled with Windows Mobile or a Nokia (who I refuse to support because of the awfulness of “Comes with music” and a general dislike of S60). Getting people out of the Microsoft headlock and giving them genuine choice can only be a good thing – after all, once they’re used to other OSes, they might start thinking about switching their desktop too.
Anything but Windoze, people, anything but Windoze.
Folks, we need a good smar tphone that is NOT LOCKED TO ANY ONE PROVIDER!
There, I said it.
“um, my iPhone has an analog clock stuck at 10:15 on the home screen”
How many years was it before iCal ever said it was anything but the 17th or whatever it was?
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