Thoughts on Android
I’ve been borrowing the Nexus One from CP + B’s mobile lab for the last two days, pretty impressed so far. Swapped out my AT&T SIM card and had immediate calling and edge networking. Set up Exchange access, no problems with email or contacts but apparently there’s no calendar support. Wait, what? Advertised Exchange support but no calendar? That’s seems like someone’s bad joke, and a definite blocker to adoption. Hardware The form factor may be perfect, definitely an improvement of the iPhone. Slightly thinner (like iPhone 1G), but most importantly a little narrower. It feels more like a phone, while the iPhone still has a little 1999 PDA feel. Matte metallic finish over glossy plastic, check. Removable battery, check. Nice loud speaker & decent camera w/flash check. Semi-soft navigation keys that are way too close to the spacebar? Ouch, design flaw there. Every time I try to hit the space bar I have a 33% chance of hitting “home” and backing out of whatever I was typing. Software Live backgrounds are pretty slick, slightly concerned they’ll trigger a seizure every time I look at the phone though. Desktop widgets are great, not sure why Apple hasn’t enabled Dashboard style widgets for iPhone. Google Voice integration could be game changing and has been almost totally seamless (one call failed to connect to Voice). Seesmic, Foursquare, and Tripit cover my main app market needs. Layar is insanely innovative. I don’t really want to have to pay for Flight Track again... Between the 80 Android phones that are hitting the market and Windows Mobile 7 (later this year?) the iPhone story is going to change pretty quickly. Apple has managed to alienate developers (me, for example) with their App Approval practices. My guess is that early adopters and developers will shift focus to Android this year and Windows Mobile next.
