Ardent Meridian

It was, with some anticipation, that I awaited the full and final details of the T-Mobile G1 handset; the first of what will hopefully be a long line of Android based devices.

The early images of the G1 that have been floating around on the web have been less than inspiring, but I was more interested in the G1 as a way to explore Android and its SDK running on actual hardware than in using it as my day-to-day phone.

The basic hardware specifications of the G1 are comparable, or superior, to most current smart-phones that are available at a similar price.  For example, it stacks up well against devices like the, slightly more expensive, AT&T "Tilt" (my previous day-to-day device).

The most interesting aspects of the hardware layout as follows:

• 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios
• 3.2" half-VGA (320×480) color touch-screen
• 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera
• Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• GPS receiver
• Accelerometer/motion sensor input
• ~5 hours talk time with standby time claims ranging from ~130 hours to ~300

Although not billed as a "business" phone, comparisons with other smart-phones are inevitable, and in this space the G1′s primary competitors are Windows Mobile based devices, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry units and Apple’s iPhone.  In such a comparison the most glaring omission is the total lack of support for any integration with either Microsoft Exchange or Outlook. All of the competing devices have rich and solid support for over-the-air (OTA) synchronization with Exchange as a standard feature.

You could enable IMAP support on Exchange and again access to corporate e-mail that way, but e-mail is only a fraction of what Exchange offers; it is the combination of e-mail, scheduling, groupware and collaboration features in Exchange that make it compelling – and without that you’re missing the point.

It is, of course, possible that support of Exchange will be added later, either as part of the Android O.S. itself (although that doesn’t seem likely, given that Google already has their own infrastructure and solutions for that functionality) or via a third-party application via the Android Market.  That would, in my opinion, be a serious "sit up and take notice" event in the evolution of the Android platform and the devices it powers.

Despite the high-promise of an open platform for building applications, and how powerful that potentially is in the business space,the lack of Exchange support is going to render the G1, and other Android based phones, as unviable for common business use.  Again, the G1 isn’t billed as a business phone, it is more consumer-targeted, and that is fair enough.

So, how does the G1 stack up as a consumer phone?

The consumer phone market is highly fashion driven and image conscious, on top of being feature hungry.  The iPhone has an obvious "wow" factor in its interface and the execution of the hardware.  Similarly HTC (who build the G1) has a good degree of "wow" factor with the design of its latest phones like the "Touch Pro" here and the slick custom interface they have put on top of Windows Mobile 6.

This makes the design of the G1 somewhat puzzling as HTC are obviously capable of producing very attractive devices.  The Touch Pro doesn’t suffer with a big wedge or shelf when you slide the keyboard out either.  So on looks alone the G1 is not off to a great start.  Android itself does not present an especially flashy interface, so when comparing devices side-by-side in the store, it is further handicapped, especially next to the large-screen demonstrations of the iPhone.

In theory none of this should matter, since a large part of the appeal of Android is the open nature of the platform; in reality that is something that developer’s, even businesses, may care about – consumers tend to just want a device that works, has interesting features, looks good and is "cool".

There are other niggles, like the lack of an actual headphone socket (a dongle is provided, and they are annoying – I speak from experience with my last three HTC smart-phones) and the limited internal storage.  In the context of media-playback these are limitations that, while easily solvable, shouldn’t need to be (much like the recessed headphone jack on the original iPhone).

This presents a potential problem for adoption.  There’s nothing wonderfully desirable about the device from a hardware perspective, the software is interesting but certainly not compelling from a consumer-perspective, and so it seems the device needs a killer application to stimulate interest.  It may be that the Android Market is that killer application, though it is obviously going to be a while for that to be known.

Up to the release of the G1′s final specifications I had been enjoying experimenting with the Android SDK – and I was anxious to get hold of a real device to play with, instead of being stuck using the emulator.

Post release, while the platform itself is still interesting, my enthusiasm for it has dulled a little.  Or a lot.  The general reaction to the G1 I’ve read doesn’t seem to be very positive – and that’s among the crowd that does care about open-ness.

It will be interesting to see how the G1, and indeed the Android O.S. fares in the market, but the dulling of my interest is sufficient to make me put off buying the G1, even as just a test device, and take a wait-and-see approach.

I look forward to the release of the next Android-based phone, but until such time that there is a business-viable, or iPhone comparable, device running on it – something that spurs the imagination beyond the open-aspects of the platform, I am going to be switching back to developing for the iPhone and finish my first application-store project there.

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