Woot! – Google released the Nexus1 phone that runs the latest version of the android operating system.
Cue Twitter going crazy with #nexus1 hashtags and a million phone übergeeks foaming at the mouth.
But you know what?
Who cares – I’ve already got my personal iPhone and I’ve got my work HTC Hero which runs android – so as far as I can tell, bar perhaps a few bells, whistles and a bit of a speed bump, i’ve got that base covered (and I still prefer my iphone).
The Nexus1 looks OK though, and sure, the OS is way better than the blackberry offering that was on my Storm, so anyone who’s never used an iPhone is going to love it – and in fact I am sure a lot of people who HAVE used an iPhone will love it to and switch across.
But is this the iPhone killer that so many people seem to be saying it is?
Erm, frankly, of course it isn’t!
iPhone was a smartphone killer because until it turned up nothing was doing the phone thing in any way decent compared to what the phone from Cupertino burst onto the scene doing. Blackberry was rocking the email world, Windows was doing it’s crashy bloat thing, and there was palm trying to keep afloat by producing the Treo (pre-Pré of course and how that shook things up right?!)
but when iPhone burst onto the scene it was all new, it was shiny, and it “just worked” – you’d not really had all of it’s features on a handheld device before in a form factor and such well executed good looking package until it came out – and that’s why it was the killer phone – because it was truly revolutionary, not because it did a few things better or in a different UI than it’s competitors were already doing – but because it was effectively doing them first.
So, in comes Google and Nexus1 – and you know what? It’s doing the same stuff as the iPhone and nothing really that different.
iPhone killer? get real – and if it does i’ll gladly swap my trusty 3G for a nexus2 in a years time. But until google gets it’s thinking cap on and actually innovates in the mobile space I think the guys in Cupertino are probably sleeping easy at night and focusing on their iSlate concepts.
Howard
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January 7th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Kind of agree with everything you’ve stated here Howard, the one angle they could have an edge IMO – and it will be interesting to see how accurate their solution really is – is voice entry.
I know I can search my iPhone using the Google app, but being able to talk in emails whilst on a train / in the car etc could prove invaluable.
Otherwise, I’m a little underwhelmed by it all, but I think this could offer real potential to compete.
Of course swype could change all of this if they can get the handset manufacturers to buy the licence. Check it out if you’ve not seen it yet.
Cheers
Steve
PS I can only imagine how nervy Erick Tseng was when talking in the message below!
http://news.cnet.com/2300-1041_3-10002097-7.html?tag=mncol
January 8th, 2010 at 10:44 am
Here, here!
I also dread to think how much I have spent on apps in the last 18 months that would only be transferable to a new iPhone handset?
As for Steve’s voice entry dreams of dictating an email on the train… I have used specialist voice software and the results still aren’t great in the quiet of a home office let alone on a train. The google app on the iPhone aint great either so I would imagine that reality is a bit far removed for Steve for a while
I did hover on the order button for a while but fairly glad I resisted, multi-touch was the killer for me; far less versatile in the future and a step backward.