It’s almost 2AM in NY and I have to leave for JFK in a few hours…which makes this the perfect time to drop some random thoughts on Google’s big Android press conference. I’ll be using my friend Augustine’s binary system. He believes that everything can classified as good or bad — nothing else matters. Actually, he believes that there are only two types of women in the world — women you’d sleep with and women you wouldn’t sleep with. My adaptation of his system is easier to use for things like tech, games, etc. Anyway, let’s get to it!
Bad: So many people missed the big news coming from today’s Android press conference. The Nexus One wasn’t the story. Google.com/phone was a much bigger deal with loads of interesting implications for the future of the industry.
Good: In America, mobile carriers have controlled the business for far too long. Google’s new model obviously gives it — a mobile OS vendor and mobile advertising company — more power. It also gives phone manufacturers (HTC, Motorola, etc.) more power. Most importantly, it will (eventually) give consumers more choice when it comes to buying Android phones.
Bad: Google is trying to push the term “superphone” to describe handsets like the Nexus One and others that it will sell on Google.com/phone. It’s stupid. It’s annoying. If my phone could fly around the Earth and turn back time, then I’d be happy to call it superphone. Until then, it’s just the latest annoying marketing concoction.
Good: It seems like Google will only be selling “superphones” on its web site. The idea is that it will work closely with select partners to come up with phones that show Android at its best. For tech enthusiasts, this is all that really matters. Handset makers and mobile providers are more concerned with budget and mid-range phones, but tech geeks only care about the best. In terms of Android, it looks like Google.com/phone will only feature the best.
Bad: Talking with a bunch of people that are interested in the phone, but prefer AT&T over T-Mobile was pretty amusing. A lot of them said it was completely moronic for Google’s debut phone to support T-Mobile’s 3G bands and not AT&T’s. There are a few things to note here. T-Mobile deserves this exclusive window for being Google’s first major Android partner in America. More importantly, the Nexus One is an international product and the 3G bands it supports make much more sense from a global standpoint. The conversations reminded me that nerds think that America is the only market in the world.
Bad: The mainstream press just sucks at tech reporting. The local ABC News show ran a spot on the Nexus One. Some of the information was flat-out incorrect. A lot of it was just talking about the iPhone and how this is Google’s attempt at “beating” it. I’m pretty sure every other sentence had the word iPhone in it. It was just crap reporting. Sure, it’s a big deal that Google is selling the Nexus One, but its Android initiative and selling directly to consumers is even more noteworthy.
Bad: I was hoping for some interesting news on Google Voice and its role in Android phones. One of my sources told me that Google’s acquisition of Gizmo5 will lead to a huge Google Voice announcement later this year and Android handsets will be an important part of the announcement. Waiting…yuck.
Bad: The Nexus One is being dismissed by a lot of writers simply because it isn’t a revolutionary product. It’s still the best Android phone available today. Why is that not good enough?
Good: Google has a chance to be the disruptor I wrote about before, but not in the way I originally wrote about. As it gets more handset and carrier partners to participate in Google.com/phone, the bigger chance it has to truly change the way Americans by mobile products.
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