Who will be hit by Android?
24/09/08 20:30
Will Google’s new mobile OS effect the iPhone?
Our initial impression of Android is that it is a solid bit of software, but not a threat to the iPhone right now. There are a number of key features of the software which does not offer the same level of usability as the iPhone.
The first part which is missing is the multi-touch interface of the iPhone. Android doe not offer this feature, and for anyone who has browsed web pages and photos with two fingers on an iPhone, zooming in and out with a finger and thumb, going back would be hard to do. Using arrow keys is soo yesterday!! Secondly you can’t play video on an Android driven phone right now. This will surely change, but it does show the rough edges which are there right now.
However, the bigger drawback is hardware. Until a company produces something better than the G1, HTC’s plastic block of a phone, it will not attract the same market as the iPhone. The G1 is plain ugly, with a plethora of plastic buttons. We know some people who would prefer if there were physical keys on the iPhone, but the idea of the old plastic keys makes us queasy. We like the way the iPhone touch-screen keyboard layouts change depending on the application, and the idea of plastic hardware keyboards takes us back to the days of our Palm Treo.
For now the Android OS looks set to cause a few headaches at Microsoft. Why would a company license Microsoft’s Windows Mobile when there is an open source OS available from a company as large as Google? Windows Mobile has a small percentage of the market, and the introduction of Android must surely begin to seal this position?
As for the HTC handset, the G1, it looks to us like a Nokia type of phone, attracting the Nokia buyer. It lacks in the OS finesse which Apple brought to the market, and given that Google can never control the hardware and software integration, Android phones may never have the same cool factor as the iPhone. So we think this new venture by Google will impact the market share of the traditional phone market. For now the iPhone keeps its own space, but Android 2 may yet be a threat.
Our initial impression of Android is that it is a solid bit of software, but not a threat to the iPhone right now. There are a number of key features of the software which does not offer the same level of usability as the iPhone.
The first part which is missing is the multi-touch interface of the iPhone. Android doe not offer this feature, and for anyone who has browsed web pages and photos with two fingers on an iPhone, zooming in and out with a finger and thumb, going back would be hard to do. Using arrow keys is soo yesterday!! Secondly you can’t play video on an Android driven phone right now. This will surely change, but it does show the rough edges which are there right now.
However, the bigger drawback is hardware. Until a company produces something better than the G1, HTC’s plastic block of a phone, it will not attract the same market as the iPhone. The G1 is plain ugly, with a plethora of plastic buttons. We know some people who would prefer if there were physical keys on the iPhone, but the idea of the old plastic keys makes us queasy. We like the way the iPhone touch-screen keyboard layouts change depending on the application, and the idea of plastic hardware keyboards takes us back to the days of our Palm Treo.
For now the Android OS looks set to cause a few headaches at Microsoft. Why would a company license Microsoft’s Windows Mobile when there is an open source OS available from a company as large as Google? Windows Mobile has a small percentage of the market, and the introduction of Android must surely begin to seal this position?
As for the HTC handset, the G1, it looks to us like a Nokia type of phone, attracting the Nokia buyer. It lacks in the OS finesse which Apple brought to the market, and given that Google can never control the hardware and software integration, Android phones may never have the same cool factor as the iPhone. So we think this new venture by Google will impact the market share of the traditional phone market. For now the iPhone keeps its own space, but Android 2 may yet be a threat.
blog comments powered by Disqus
