Comments on: After Google's Android, a gPod?

Now that the Google brand has entered the world's top 10, what kind of products might company think of marketing?

[eltoro2827]

I'll pass...no andriod for me.

[ChrisMatyszczyk]

Oh, no. Why?

Chris

[joetesta70]

Apple troll.

[Alex Alexzander]

If Android gets great software on par with the iPhone or better, then I'd likely switch from the iPhone to the Android for one simple reason. CHOICE. They will offer different devices and I doubt the will lock the development as tightly as Apple is currently doing.

Sorry to write this, but Steve Jobs is repeating the mistakes of his past. He locked the phone to his vision of perfection. Treating customers like little babies that can't make choices of their own. This fatherly "I know what's best" attitude is exactly what will ultimately hurt Apple yet again.

Software quality is the key however. I don't how great a phone is if the software on that phone lacks. Right now, the software on the iPhone is by far superior to that of phones from RIM, TREO, and Windows Mobile. But each of those phones has something the iPhone does not. Maturity. Still, it is clear the iPhone is a whole new generation in terms of software capability. It's simply not realized yet as the product is so new.

But if the Android phones offer both the high quality and the generational leap that the iPhone has, but without the dictator telling us what we can and cannot buy, or who we can choose as a carrier, then that will represent an even better opportunity for customers.

So I hope Android becomes a big success. Like the PC itself, it's superior because of it represents choice. If the platform is equal, then choice is the clear winner.

Good luck Google / Android. I'll be watching, and I'll be hoping.

Alex Alexzander

[joetesta70]

You're exactly right.

Google = OPEN
Crapple = Clo$ed

[Blacksheep1982]

First, I'm getting the Android phone as I've had T-Mobile for years and this is the first phone I'm actually excited about from them. Second, a gPod would be great and I bet it would beat the iPod touch in both features and price by $100-$200. While I currently use a Creative Zen, nothing has really been able to compete with Apple as everyone in the general public refers to Mp3 players as "iPods" due to Apple's branding success, but Google, due to it's name, could present the first real competitor.

[Blacksheep1982]

First, I'm getting the Android phone as I've had T-Mobile for years and this is the first phone I'm actually excited about from them. Second, a gPod would be great and I bet it would beat the iPod touch in both features and price by $100-$200. While I currently use a Creative Zen, nothing has really been able to compete with Apple as everyone in the general public refers to Mp3 players as "iPods" due to Apple's branding success, but Google, due to it's name, could present the first real competitor.

[coryschulz]

I think Android looks like it will be very successful and will help get rid of Palm and WIndows Mobile, but I don't think it's for me. I'll stick with my iPhone. I'm pretty satisfied with it so far.

[ChrisMatyszczyk]

Coryschultz,

What would make you switch? Is it at all possible?

Chris

[Alex Alexzander]

You really should try a Zune. I've been saying it for a while. Problem is that Apple has held the lead for so long that prying people away from it is not likely going to happen. I myself own 2 iPhones, and 1 iPod. I have owned about 5 iPods. I still gave Zune an honest shot, and I have to say I find it a better product for music. The store itself could be better. The software isn't great, but it is good. It is certainly not bad.

Raw feature-set, the iPod wins. But let me tell you where the Zune wins. You get to explore all the music you can fit on the Zune itself. There is nothing like that kind of fredom to explore and it it truly works. I have had Yahoo, Napster, and Rhapsody. All of them are poor excuses for a music store. I have owned a Sansa, whcih I gave away for free I hated it so much. And I still own a Creative Zen V+. I like that little player. And in some ways I like it better than the iPod.

But Zune with 3.0 and Audible support, plus all you can eat music, which are truly the two most important things to me, the Zune wins. With Apple and the iPhone and/or iPod I find I spend a ton of money just for a modest amount of music. But with the Zune, I have all teh music I could want and teh bill is never out of control. It's always just the $14.95 a month. I don't need to own every song. Songs that I like come and go. What is my favorite today will likely be something that just needs to be deleted in a few months. So for me, subscription with the option to own those few that are indeed timeless is the best choice.

The problem with iTunes is, you have no choice. You either own it or not. With Zune, you can own it, or just rent it. Just like I don't need to own every movie I watch, I also do not need to own ever track I wish to listen to.

Give the zune a real honest try, and I think you'll be surprised at how good it is. Don't let the Microsoft name sour you. Thy did their homework and created a real solid competitor in the Zune platform.

Alex Alexzander

[ChrisMatyszczyk]

You know something, Alex, you could get a job in advertising.

That's one of the better Microsoft ads I've ever read.

Thank you for commenting.

Chris

[ismetd]

I currently own an iphone but i'm not happy with it. i use Google web apps daily. especially google calendar and there is no way to wireless sync with iphone, withoud connecting clumsy outlook. only way is to open a webpage to access my calendar entries and i hate it.

Im hoping there will be better google apps/android integration, and if i see that, i will switch to android.

to my opinion a smartphone is useless on its own, it has to seamessly connect/sync with online apps.

[raulmot]

@ismetd

If you jailbreak your iPhone, you can use nemussync to sync with Google Calendar over the air. Works very well, and even supports multiple google calendars within a gmail account.

[Alex Alexzander]

I couldn't agree more. A smart phone needs to connect to software to be useful. Outlook is extremely popular. I love it, and I rely on it. And the iPhone obviously thought of the outlook client as an after-thought. No task sync, without 3rd party software, and no notes sync. In POP3 mode you can't create any folders at all. It's not truly syncing with the Outlook client like Palm did with version 1.0. Every smart phone I have owned provided these basic sync abilities. Not the iPhone. It's clear Steve Jobs was thinking of MobileMe, and then realized after that he needed to be part of the rest of the world. Now I think over time he'll get there, but you never know. Apple's own mail.app has been pretty darn basic throughout it's entire existance. Apple feels it's pretty much feature-complete and I worry that Apple also might think the iPhone is feature complete. And if they feel it is, then folks like me are wasting their time waiting for what we feel are the most basic of feature and functions.

For all of Windows Mobile's flaws, I do think we're going to see it improve. But Android most of all gives me a sense of wanting an open system and that holds great promise. I think Google is on the right track. The question truly is, will developers, business people, and consumers adopt it. I want to, but I need the software to be there.

Alex

[timber2005]

gPod? Did we think the microsoft music player would be named the mPod?
REALLY? Lets be a little more EXPLANATIVE...

"After Google's Andriod, a portable media device?"

[bkedersha]

There are already banks with hearts, they are called credit unions.

[joetesta70]

Google = OPEN
Crapple = CLO$ED

Go Google! Suk it $teve Job$!

[AppleSuxLeo]

I second that...

[dude7895]

I third that.

[michaeltim]

At least the "gPod" seems to have a cool interface. Check this out:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFjAdgwqtfU

[AppleSuxLeo]

Even pro-Apple Leo Laporte admitted that the music discovery features of Zune are better than Apple`s "genius" Apple should not have used such superlatives to describe their feature...Moron would have been a better term , Mr Jobs.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Did Google discover the gSpot too ?

[BNUX]

I think Google Android would be very good thing for everybody. iPhone 3G in this moment rules and is the best Mobile Phone and Internet Mobile Device (my opinion). I have one, and I worked long time with Windows Mobile and Symbian and when I begin to use iPhone I just surrender to Apple. But I hate some of the Apple control attitude. So what is better than some healthy competition?!?! Apple will only open when it feels that have more to lose than to win. See the example of OS X Mac, works better and is much open (runs X Open Source) to costumer choices and creativity than MS Windows is. In computers the controller is Microsoft, but that is because they have almost monopoly of PC Operating Systems.

So I will be a iPhone 3G user, and I will welcome very happily the GPhone Android. Hope have a lot of success and maybe if Apple (after a year) does not change some of the iPhone policy I will buy myself a google Phone.

[rnaoncfixd]

Am I the only one that thinks that gPod sounds a little ... umm... dirty? At least some women I know would buy into it... though, be slightly disappointed... and then after realizing what it is... be disappointed a little more.

[professionaladventurer]

Going upstream I predict low to mediocre sales of the Android. Sure the geek crowd is looking froward, but ask a few normal people, and they say "huh"? You "geeks" all forget there are already two really popular smart phone brands that normals covet, the Black Berry with years in the market and the super cool iPhone.
I was getting a new tattoo yesterday and I pulled out my iphone (yeah, it's ok and works for me, bla, bla) everybody in the place went nuts wanting to check it out. One tattooed skell/meth-head went to so as to say if I wanted to sell it, he would take it off my hands for $200 and pulled out a wad of $20's. MAYBE in the big city where you live everybody and their mom's know about the Android, but I travel between Alaska and Hawaii and the Blackberry and iPhone firmly rule the hearts and minds and at the airports it's those two in the hands of the business travelers and the college and pin-up girls stick with their Razors.