“Plain-vanilla wireless carrier T-Mobile USA is now taking a Ben & Jerry’s approach with an exotic new flavor, but the company’s shift in strategy is unlikely to convert many rival customers to its cause,” Jeffry Bartash reports for MarketWatch.
“The new ‘flavor’ is the G1 phone, a stylish Google-powered handset that does most of the things an iPhone does, with a few added twists. The privately held service provider, owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, unveiled the device Tuesday at a packed press conference in New York,” Bartash reports.
“The G1 is unique because it’s the first in the industry to be based on Android, which is Google Inc.’s operating system for mobile phones,” Bartash reports.
“It’s unlikely the T-Mobile phone will do much to wrestle customers away from rival carriers, analysts say. Most subscribers are locked into annual contracts and the price of the G1 is just $20 less than Apple Inc.’s iPhone. In addition, the cheapest monthly plan for the G1 is $65 — just $5 less than the comparable iPhone plan,” Bartash reports.
“‘I thought they would have gotten a lot more aggressive on pricing,’ said Tero Kuittinen, a longtime wireless analyst at Global Crown Capital. The brand power of Apple is so strong, he added, that T-Mobile and little-known HTC of Taiwan will have a hard time competing on the same stage as the iPhone without a sharper price differential,” Bartash reports.
Full article here.
Plus it supposedly does not have a standard headphone jack….
The Android phone makes a decent Sidekick replacement. That’s where it fits.
That’s nice. Android will tell the world that iPhone changed the standard and that from now on, all cellphones need to be smart and adaptable. So who said that there can’t and shouldn’t be more than one ?…
Google and Apple are not at war and never will be, in fact Google’s CEO in jest suggested publicly that they would , in the future merge.
Apple’s got a huge jump on all and will maintain the standard and bar because it always has been the innovator and oracle of the pc world.
Makes me wonder why Google even bothered.
because it can thrive and rule the rest of the market and ….take away Microsoft….
The big problem for T-Mobile is that its 3G network is even more spartan than AT&T;’s.
Google and Apple are the future of the computing world – goodbye Micro$oft.
The Gphone doesnt have a 3.5 mm jack and only comes with 1GB of memory and a simple MP3 player.
But it isnt windows….
even in the current market, it isn’t price that will differentiate this phone. It’s usability, style, functionality and coolness. This G1 phone has none of that.
I’m a pretty diehard mac fan, I think that for a first run device it is the closest thing to a competitor for the iPhone that I have seen yet, and I hope they take it even farther….
that can only force Apple to do even better things with the iPhone
The Android phone is great news for all of us! The shoot from the hip critics and the fan boys don’t realize that competition provides us with better products for less money. Two years from now the iPhone will be even better thanks to pressure from Android and, of course, the Blackberry.
Yes, I can’t wait to see T-Mobile’s G1 phone in action. There are quite a few Mac Heads who know that Google and Apple are quickly leading the mobile market. Just as Apple has influenced AT & T to ramped up their G3 network, the G1 phone is causing T-Mobile to ramp up their network too. Imagine doing all of that in just a couple of years? It tells you how antiquated the mobile phone market is (at least here in the States), and that just some new basic ideas changed everything.
Thank you Apple, and thank you Google.
one thing is for sure: windows mobile is dead. which handsetmaker will pay redmond 15$ a piece for the license to windows mobile when they can get android and soon symbian 60 for free? working on office documents on the go isn’t enough of an differentiation to justify that price otherwise rimm wouldn’t have made so many inroads in the corporate world. and by the way: they are dead, too.
here is my guess for marketshare of smartphone makers 3 years from now: #1 apple (mac os x) 35%, #2 nokia (symbian) 30%, #3 HTC (android) 20%.