Google's Android Arriving Tomorrow

[MacRumors]

The big news this week will be the announcement for the first Android device from Google, HTC and T-Mobile. T-Mobile sent out invitations to the media to "experience the first Android-powered phone" on Tuesday, September 23rd.

A video demo from Google demonstrates the device's browser and interface of the upcoming device. The new device is said to be priced at $199 and "showcase the Google brand" and incorporate a swivel-out full keyboard along with an accelerometer and a large touch screen.

The new platform will obviously draw comparisons with Apple's iPhone. Google is promoting the openness of its platform at a time when Apple is seeing more criticism about its approval process. Google will be introducing its own Android Market which provides developers a central repository for application sales and distribution. At launch, the Android Market will only offer free applications, but billing support should be coming at a later date. Unlike the App Store, the Android Market has no approval process and any developer can upload any application.

One of the particularly successful iPhone developers, however, is staying away from Android. Steve Demeter who made headlines last week for having made $250,000 in sales of his iPhone game Trism told AlleyInsider that the availability of multiple handset models could introduce more headaches than its worth:

“Do I want to be spending 6 months to write the game, and another 6 months making it compatible? If I had Trism available for Android, and there are 50 Android devices and every time one of them crashes (the users) contact me, do I want that?”

Instead, Demeter has been hiring and is working on 5 more iPhone games.



Article Link

[andiwm2003]

"any developer can upload any application" sounds like a big mess.

however competition is good and hopefully forces apple to become more open.

[KingYaba]

That picture makes Android look huge. Not something I want to carry around.

[fastbite]

Let the competition begin.

[Fidgetyrat]

I'm not dead set on apple products, but what really makes them stand out is the fact they don't have 100 different models to support.

How could a developer successfully write a game for android for some models having keyboards, some not.. some having touch, some not.. some with this or that.. you get the point.

All of these companies attempting to make an AppStore are going to fail miserably due to the different combinations of hardware...

Its sad.


But I bet android has built-in ToDo manager... Gah..

[wolfshades]

Originally Posted by KingYaba

That picture makes Android look huge. Not something I want to carry around.

I can hear it now.

"Is that an Android in your pocket or...."

"No, babe. That's me. All me...."

[twoodcc]

yes competition is good, but i really don't see this hurting the iphone that much

[CWallace]

Originally Posted by andiwm2003

"any developer can upload any application" sounds like a big mess.

Daniel Eran Dilger of Roughlydrafted.com has been very critical of what he believes is the lack of security for the platform and how it could become a malware-riddled platform.

[denm316]

I am all for Android. If they provide everything on multiple carriers as well I think they will blow Apple away.

[tgildred]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

Google will be introducing its own Android Market which provides developers a central repository for application sales and distribution.

Please tell me the android market is run by Jawas.

[OS X Dude]

I guarantee someone will port Android to jailbroken iPhones.

I'm v excited about Android, I seriously wonder whether or not my next phone purchase would be another iPhone.

[tobyx]

First handset, I see. Why not make it a good one.
Being open and all can be good but from a marketing perspective, if you launch this thing and it's a mediocre device, people will connect that to Android (which doesn't look all too fascinating now, does it).
The handset it butt-ugly.

[Full of Win]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

This is just a speedbump on the iPhones road to glory.

[BornAgainMac]

The different hardware available to support and the fact that the developers can upload anything (including harmful stuff and spyware) will be interesting.

[Fidgetyrat]

Originally Posted by tobyx

if you launch this thing and it's a mediocre device, people will connect that to Android (which doesn't look all too fascinating now, does it).
The handset it butt-ugly.

I completely agree with this. Launching on a sub-par handset that is ugly is going to cause people to associate this with Android. Why support Android when all you get is clunky hardware?

[LagunaSol]

I'm glad to see 1) another competitor to help knock Windows Mobile into irrelevance, and 2) someone to force Apple to quit dragging its feet with its iPhone improvements. One year and three months and they still haven't implemented copy & paste???

But I predict Android to be a hot mess. First, show me some Google software apps that come anywhere close to Apple's stuff. And I don't know that the "eternal beta" model Google likes to follow is going to fly in the mobile device market.

Most importantly, the wide range of devices that must be serviced by Android will make it a nightmare. Big screens, small screens, touchscreens, non-touch screens, physical keyboards & controls, touchscreen keyboards and controls. You think Windows is a catastrophe because of all the hardware it has to support? At least PCs have a common keyboard and mouse. Apple's hardware/software integration that has worked so well with the Mac (though not translating into market share) will work even better with mobile devices, and I think market share in this case will reflect this.

I think Google is biting off way more than they can chew with this project.

[theheadguy]

Originally Posted by Steve Demeter

“Do I want to be spending 6 months to write the game, and another 6 months making it compatible? If I had Trism available for Android, and there are 50 Android devices and every time one of them crashes (the users) contact me, do I want that?”

Ehh... pretty lame. Aside from potential problems, what about rewards? "50 Android devices" sounds like it could become an extremely successful product to me. Don't get me wrong, I love the iPhone but I will not be drawn into this cult-like mentality where I begin to dislike variety. Yes, the iPhone was not only welcomed in the cell phone market, but it was desperately needed. However, this 'let Apple rule the world' mentality is getting old. And yes, I realize this is not what the developer was saying exactly, but the attitude is a recurring theme not only on these boards but in the newer Mac developer community.

[madrag]

hmmm... let's see how this works...

BTW, in the article posted here, it is misspelled: 'The big news this week will be the announcement for the first Android device from Google, HTC and T-Mobile. T-Mobile sent out invitations to the media to "experience the first Andoird-powered phone" on Tuesday, September 23rd.'

[cshale210]

i dont even really see this taking too much away...its pretty damn ugly

[mkrishnan]

Originally Posted by OS X Dude

I guarantee someone will port Android to jailbroken iPhones.

Is that feasible? Android is a whole OS in itself, isn't it? Is it going to be able to run fast enough on top of OS X on the iPhone to be able to be used?

I'll be curious to see how it works. Has Google said anything about compatibility with Sync Services / interoperability of these devices with Macs? I don't care how sophisticated a phone is... I'm not typing contacts in manually. The last time I did that was ... 2002.

[brad.c]

Originally Posted by cshale210

i dont even really see this taking too much away...its pretty damn ugly

Quite. Doesn't help that the shot was taken on Aunt Lilian's chesterfield.

[MacbookSwitcher]

There is no inherent advantage to open-source. All that matters is good software. If you give people an intuitive, easy-to-use software experience, they will not care if it's open-source or not.

HTC (i.e. Microsoft WinMo) and Nokia have not yet gotten the memo.

That being said, I see no inherent advantage to Android whatsoever. It's Just Another OS. Unless it can deliver a groundbreaking software experience that tops the iPhone, which seems unlikely from what I've seen of Android so far.

And the Trism developer nailed it on the head. Would you rather make a game for one device, one resolution, and one hardware configuration? Or a game that has to run on 17 different screen sizes, keyboard or no keyboard, accelerometer or no accelerometer?

[OS X Dude]

Originally Posted by mkrishnan

Is that feasible? Android is a whole OS in itself, isn't it? Is it going to be able to run fast enough on top of OS X on the iPhone to be able to be used?

What I meant was OS X would not be on the iPhone - just android. The iPhone isn't powerful enough to simultaneously multi-boot OS-es.

[mutant]

You know how to make a billion bucks with Android? Make a program that can port your apps to all the different phones out there. Simple right?

I think competition is a great thing. It'll be a tough road ahead though for these guys.

[Phil A.]

I've been pretty excited about Android because I felt it could offer some real competition to the iPhone. However, that is possibly the ugliest, clunkiest phone I have ever seen in my life. On top of its inherent ugliness, it also appears to have terrible ergonomics (a slide up phone should all slide up otherwise you have an edge getting in the way of the keyboard, just as they have there)
What they should have done was to get HTC to release an Android version of the Touch Pro, then we could have had a fairer fight...