Hype builds for Android phone launch
Correction made September 17 at 9:05 a.m. PDT: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Google had not officially launched an application marketplace. Google has announced an application Web site called Android Market.
The launch of the new Google Android phone on T-Mobile USA's network is fast approaching, but will the phone live up to its hype?
T-Mobile USA is expected to announce the new phone, called the Dream, on September 23. And it is expected to start selling the device, which is made by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC, sometime in October.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that sources close to the manufacturer say HTC is forecasting that it will ship 600,000 to 700,000 phones by the end of the year. This is much higher than the 300,000 to 500,000 phones analysts have predicted the company will sell.
Neither HTC nor T-Mobile would comment on the story, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The phone, which will be the first to use Google's open-source Android operating system, has been hyped for months. Blogs and traditional news outlets have been reporting every rumor and leak about the device, which is expected to go head-to-head with Apple's iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphones.
The phone is expected to be packed full of bells and whistles that combine those found in the iPhone with some found in a BlackBerry. For example, it has a large touch screen like the iPhone. But it also has a swivel-out QWERTY keypad and trackball for navigation similar to the BlackBerry.
But I think the success of the Android-based Dream will be based on how well the software and applications work. Apple's open API (application programming interface) for the iPhone and its App Store, where applications are easily sold and downloaded, have created a robust marketplace for new applications for the iPhone.
Android, which is built on an open-source platform, promises to offer developers an easier way to develop new applications. And this will likely be the case. But the fact that Android will be used on hundreds of different handsets might complicate application development and distribution.
iPhone developers only have to worry about one piece of hardware, which makes it easier to develop more robust applications. But this will not be the case with Android, which can be used by any phone manufacturer.
In August Google announced Android Market, an online center that will let people find, buy, download, and rate applications and other content for mobile phones equipped with the open-source operating system. But at least initially, the site will be a beta version that will only support distribution of free applications. An update later will handle different versions of applications, support for different profiles of Android phones, and analytics to help developers track adoption, according to an earlier CNET News report.
Android is also supposed to have tighter integration with many Google applications. It will be interesting to see if easy access to these applications and the Android Market will satisfy customers enough to entice them to choose the Dream over an iPhone or BlackBerry.
Marguerite Reardon has been a CNET News reporter since 2004, covering cell phone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the ongoing consolidation of the phone companies. E-mail Maggie. 
Obviously there are more windows mobile applications than any other mobile platform out there just seems strange nothing competing with the iPhone app store has been launched.
Seems like an obvious choice with
http://windows.MobileAppStore.net
or
http://android.MobileAppStore.net
or
http://iphone.MobileAppStore.net etc etc.
Cheers,
Dean
iPhone = CLOSED by GREEDY $TEVE JOB$
Didn't you learn anything from the Windows experience?
Haven't you spent enough time in your life troubleshooting why your new software doesn't work on your PC?
Why your child spends most of his or her online experience waiting for the porn pop-ups to stop...but they never do...
While your Mac brothers and sisters just happily computed along, unfettered by registry issues, virus infections, pop ups etc.
Wake up, it isn't greed you idiot, it's functionality and ease of use on a common platform with an OS that is exactly tailored to the hardware.
It's a single manufacturer allowing thousands of developers to write applications for the OS and controlling enough of the look and feel so that it just works on the hardware it designed the OS for.
And it's also enjoying that people like you who clearly don't get it, will struggle along trying to do what everyone else takes for granted.
Enjoy your conformity, Joe.
I like OS X and all, but I know of nobody (not even my die hard mac fanboy friends) that will not admit to their fair share of OS/software issues with OS X. This machine freezes completely time to time (dock icons mid-bounce), applications crash or have to be force quit regularly, etc. It's a bit snappier for what I do than Vista installed on this same machine via bootcamp, but both OS's are programmed by people who make mistakes.
Not even going to touch iPhone... don't yet have one myself but what I read and my friends experiences, it's not quite to the point of "just works"
You are both wrong. It's greed + arrogance. Thanks for your great example.
I'm really looking forward to android.
Yeah, good luck with that...
Don't you know that Macs don't cost three times more and do more than two things just fine?
Also, that's great that you haven't had a registry problem in eight years, but you're one person. Working in an IT department has taught me that Windows develops registry and other problems easily. Not on every computer, but on enough of them.
Obviously, jealous that they're stuck in PC hell.. to which I say: "Good!"
We already learned the lesson of a more closed system winning in today's market. Apple has shown that in its iPod + iTunes combo and now iPhone + iTunes works amazingly well. Everything is high quality due to Apple's tight control.
Android will have some serious hurdles. Microsoft's mobile OS has to run on different phones and has 3rd party APIs available. Android has this same problem but the only difference is Android is open source which is just a little better.
http://blogs.eweek.com/applewatch/content/channel/should_you_pay_twice_as_much_for_a_mac.html
Say what you will, but people pay twice as much for the same specs when they buy a Mac, and that doesn't sound too smart to me. Further, Macs hold about 8% market share right now versus PC. With that many people using it and with an architecture that closed, Mac's unpopularity is its best anti-virus solution. And Apple fanboys always exaggerate the problem of virus' etc. on PC's due to something that must be akin to a Napoleonic complex. Google's done pretty well thus far, how about we actually wait till the freakin' OS is available before we start proclaiming it a failure!
If it's mediocre, yep, folks probably will continue to play a premium for Apple and their stock will go up.
Not a lot different than say, are you willing to pay a premium for a BMW? Yep, part reality, part image, that BMWs are better than say a Kia.
Another thing, adding to the discussion above about how apple basically sells overpriced fluff, do any of you apple advocates remember when the iphone was first released? how the 8gb hit the market for $600 and then dropped by $200 about 1-2 months later?? Nobody else looked at that and said "Well thats BS, I wont buy from a company that does that." ?? Its no mystery why apple is reporting huge profits every quarter.
Here is a great article on android which touches on why it will be better than other mobile OSs on the market:
http://www.forbes.com/personaltech/2008/09/17/android-google-iphone-tech-wire-cx_ew_0917android.html
People who know quality and shop fiscally will gravitate to the better platform. HAHA yeah like they did back when it was DOS vs GNU/linux for the PC OS?? sigh.. i hate the world.. sorry for being so cynical but people are stupid. its true. people will probably go to whatever gets flashed in front of their faces more often between law and order and the office and whatever is dumbed down the most. I just hope for its own sake that android is simple enough to use.
- by algie123777 October 6, 2008 8:36 PM PDT
- We are really excited about the pending launch. The phone is awesome. Our little application won Google's ADC contest earlier this month. Basically you use the camera on the phone to scan a barcode and then we deliver the best online and local prices for a particular item. We think of it as a personal shopper, Yeah!!! send those greed bastards to us and we'll exploit them!
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