DragonStyle

Yep. It’s On.

The early word on the G1 from those who have actually held and played with one?

“But remember, in the end this is not really about Android versus the iPhone. It’s about Web phones versus the brick in your pocket. Simply matching the iPhone on many of these features—especially Web browsing and email—is going to be enough to help redefine the mobile market. The table stakes have just been raised. From now on, phones need to be nearly as capable as computers. All others need not apply.”
- Erick Schonfeld, TechCrunch

The most salient point of all is that the iPhone opened everyone’s eyes, and the Android phone marks the start of real competition from a variety of devices and platforms. All amidst rapidly improving increasing hardware technology and rising consumer expectations. And we’re still waiting to see what Nokia (Symbian), RIM (BlackBerry), and Microsoft (Windows Mobile) will do next.

What a great time to be working on software- a whole new platform is emerging, and its about to take off.

Quick Summary Notes of Android / G1, In Case You Missed It

This is going to be great for mobile development- a real shot across the bow of the success iPhone has had to date. The proof will be in the devices actually hitting consumer hands and being good. No one asked the killer question at the press conference- what’s the battery life?

HTC G1
Single touch screen interface (not multi touch like iPhone, but pretty good)
Slide out keyboard
Lots of Google/search integration throughout the device, including hard search key on keyboard
Form factor similar to iPhone, but a lot less sexy

Customer
T-mobile will be doing their biggest marketing program ever for a device (prob in October)
Target customer: appeal to all users, primarily a consumer device
in UK in November, rest of Europe 2009

Pricing and Availability
In Stores Oct 22nd
$179
     2 data plans (voice plan required)
       $25 unlimited web, limited messaging
       $35 unlimited web, unlimited messaging
Sim locked to T-mobile

Applications
Google Maps including street view
Instant messaging, with address book integrated presence
WebKit based browser, renders pretty much all web pages
Read PDF, Word, and Excel documents
No desktop application, all syncing over the air in the background
Demo Amazon store for music (alternative to iTunes) - doesn’t support DRM locked iTunes music
No Skype support

Email
Gmail is push, IMAP support is pull
No Exchange support, relying on 3rd party