The Googlephone
December 12th, 2009, 10:31pm by JakeSure you’ve all seen the rumors, and now it’s all but confirmed that Google/HTC will be releasing an all-bands GSM phone Engadget has the deets. My quick take is it sounds really nice, and starts to beg the question– if you’re going to buy an Android phone, why settle for a licensee instead of getting the real Google device? I dunno, if I was Samsung or one of the other less-favored phone makers, I’d have second thoughts about building Google’s platform for them. But maybe that’s overblown?
If it’s as great as claimed by Googleco workers, it might be a game changer. Or it might just be the latest in a long line of near market-leading phones that would have been something special in June 2007.
Thoughts?
December 13th, 2009 at 8:43 am
The phone sounds interesting, I guess — the beef I’ve heard about Android is that it’s kinda slow, and if this phone addresses that issue, it may be interesting. I’m a fan of the no-physical-keyboard phone (as long as it works well), so for me, this phone is more appealing than the Droid.
Do you think that many target new Android users understand of the connection between Android and Google? I’m not talking about us, I’m talking about the people who wander into a Verizon store. I’m guessing that for many people, Android means “smartphone that’s not iPhone,” and Google means search, mail, maps, etc. For people looking for a smartphone, they may opt for the “Google Phone” rather than the Motorola phone that may have the same capabilities, just because they associate Google with the Internet.
So, if this is phone is really branded as “the Google phone,” then the carriers will be in the strange position of competing against the Google name, while the Google tie-in is a major selling point of their flagship phones.
I’m interested to see whether AT&T will sell it, and if so, how they’ll price it and position it relative to the iPhone. What do you think? Google has a long relationship with T-Mo, not sure whether they’d actually sell an unlocked phone. AT&T sure won’t.
December 13th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
The other interesting thing to me is that Google got interested in the mobile phone space LONG after Microsoft, and has basically relegated them to being a non-player in the space, in the span of about 2 years. Crazy.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Old news now, but my source inside Google confirms they exist, and says they’re supposed to be nice (but hasn’t gotten one yet).
December 13th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Inside sources rock!
Reading Engadget here, this sounds like it might just be the latest in a short line of Google Dev phones, and not a complete rethink of their mobile strategy to better imitate the Borg of Cupertino.
December 14th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
My friend, Yee, actually held one in his hand and played with it for a bit. I asked him if he’d trade his iPhone for one and his answer was a qualified
“no.” He said if he never had a smartphone before he would consider it.
May 18th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Posting this from a samsung moment with enjoy 2.1. Using the voice dictation .
May 18th, 2010 at 5:58 pm
That speech recognition needs a little work on enjoy. I mean Android.
May 18th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
I was pretty impressed by the voice dictation features of the Incredible, which I’m guessing are the same as the Moment. I use Siri pretty often on my phone, and very often dial using Voice Control, so I can tell you that voice features on a phone are pretty cool. Never going to surpass a keyboard, IMHO (since there are places where you don’t want to talk — like, most places), but still useful.
May 18th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
The nice thing about the voice support in Android (nee Enjoy) 2.1 is that it’s ubiquitous. Anywhere you can enter text, you can click the virtual microphone button instead. I don’t know that I would ever use it as a primary input modality, but it’s nice to have. Just like the compass in Google Maps is nice to have (AR stuff). Android is really coming together. If I had a Moment, I’d be psyched– it’s like getting a brand new phone 8 months later. I imagine iPhone users feel the same way when new versions of the OS come out.