T-Mobile has the Android G1 handset but did you really think that other manufacturers would sit back miss out on a big slice of pie? It was only recently that Motorola announced plans to beef up the size of their Android developers team so Motorola’s Android handset comes as no surprise. The only problem here is that Motorola’s handset might not hit the market until mid-2009 - enough time for T-Mobile to take a huge lead!

Rumour has it that Motorola handset will feature a touch screen, a slide-out qwerty keyboard, and a whole range of social-network-friendly things plugged into it. Errr, pretty much like the G1, although the device could have a flip screen like the Krave ZN4. A number of images of the Motorola handset have been circulated with viewers suggesting that it looks pretty much like a high end HTC handset.

A number of industry analysts have suggested that Motorola will deliver an Android handset in order to try an recapture lost market share - believe me when I say that they have a long, uphill fight on their hands (current share prices are almost at a 16 year low).

In particular, Motorola is hoping that their Android handset will have some resonance with the social networkerss of the world as mobile social network users are predicted to to rise to as high as 23% of mobile phone users by 2012.

Rumours have it that Motorola will be selling this handset at a very low price; around $150 with a two year contract. Ok, it’s like ly to be cheap so let’s wait and how good it really is.

Popularity: 96% [?]

Remember when you found out that Apple had implemented a kill switch on the iPhone? Many iPhone fans weren’t overly happy that Apple could remotely remove apps and software that they thought inappropiate or just downright malicious. Yeah, I admit it takes some of the fun out of owning the iPhone but at the same time Apple were minimising the risk of lawsuits along the lines of “iPhone ate hamster”.

The Apple kill switch is old news. The Android kill switch is new news.

A report from Computerworld suggests that Android software has a very similar feature built into it. The article states that Google expressly says that they reserve the right to remotely kill off apps running on a users handset. A little bit too Big Brother for you? Reading into the article it appears the kill functionality is designed to protect Google and users alike - in the same way as the iPhone kill switch. In practice, Google is likely to remove apps that infringe on licensing or development agreements rather than removing your will to browse!
Interestingly, once the kill switch info was publicised, Google didn’t seem to receive much in the way of consumer vitriol; unlike Apple. Then again, it’s a fairly recent news event - it’ll take time for the information to filter down. At the end of the day, open or closed source doesn’t mean a thing. If you want to keep customers sweet tell them the truth from the outset.

Popularity: 47% [?]

Engadget have produced a complete review of the Android based G1 handset. Overall, the handset received a massive thumbs up from the Engadget reviewers, Joshua Topolsky and Chris Ziegler. The most important point to come out of the article is that the G1 is that the device isn’t about hardware - the look and feel is ‘ok’ but the software features are the jewel in the crown for Google.

We’ve listed some of the reviewers high, and low, points below:

• handset design has a slightly retro feel
• not be the lightest of phones (weighs in at 5.57 ounces)
• it would appear that the flip out screen doesn’t give the reviewers the solid confidence of other handsets. When opened the screen felt a little loose and rattled when receiving calls/texts
• the 480×320 screen got a huge thumbs up. Outstanding colours and crisp text went down well. One minus point here - the G1 doesn’t utilise multi-touch; if users shout loud and long enough it’ll probably be added to future versions
• speaker performance could be better - it’s not as good as the Blackberry
• 3G speed tests were surprisingly poor - this has been attributed to T-Mobile relatively new 3G network which is still experiencing some issues alongside poor coverage
• GPS got a real panning - you can follow the link at the end of the article if you want the full details
• no support for VPN, Microsoft Exchange, and BlackBerry Enterprise Server
• the G1 had problems distinguishing between a long press and a scroll motion - the handset detects that your finger has moved, it kills the notion of the long press in progress until you lift your finger off the screen and try again
• the device has copy/paste between any two text fields - at last, a manufacturer listened to what we want!
• attractive home screen with plans to add widget support
• Google’s Calendar, Contacts, Gmail, and Google Talk support out of the box - although the reviewers weren’t overly impressed with all these features (but the GMail client has a ringing endorsement)
• no Flash support

As I said, on the whole the G1 is a real winner (in the eyes of the review team). It seems like Google has listened and implemented what users want. Admittedly, there are some annoyances but it’s early days right now.

Here’s the link for the G1 review

Popularity: 48% [?]

Marriage of convenience?

Android’s here and it seems like everyman and his handset is going pie eyed over the open source mobile phone software - including Motorola. To be fair, Mototola has been a supporter of Android since the early days but now they’re really starting to show their commitment. Motorola are upping the number of Android development team from 50 to 350. This indicates a serious attempt to unseat Apples iPhone 3G as THE target for web developers.  As we all know, the better the app the more likely the phone will be adopte as the choice of users.

The most notable absence from the Android huddle is Nokia. The mobile phone manufacturer currently uses it’s own OS for mobile phones; Symbian. Although Nokia has open sourced Symbian other vendors are slowly chipping away at the market dominance of Nokia’s operating system. It would be fairly logical to accept that Nokia could, at some stage, join the party and launch their own Android based handset.

So, an act of benevolence on the part of Motorola or a shotgun wedding in an attempt to get a nice slice of juicey, sale pie? Considering Motorola’s falling market share I know which option I’d plump for!

Food for thought, eh Apple?

Popularity: 48% [?]

…almost eveyone.

As you probably know, the Android based G1 has officially seen the light of day and, so far, it’s getting a big thumbs up. Well, apart from Ulf Washbusch, (ex-Product Marketing Manager for Google Mobile). Ulf has created a blog post which criticises the G1:

It’s funny - but the first time I heard about Android was about 2.5 years ago, when Eric Schmidt told me about the device at Stanford after I got a job offer from Google (yet before I accepted it!). Since then I have seen many iterations of the software. The software. Not the device itself, because sadly it hasn’t changed in many years. The reason many people see the phone as ugly and old-fashioned is simply… because it IS! It’s a design unchanged for at least two years, without iterations on it besides color schemas (it’s now available in Zune-brown along with white and black) and the silly ‘with Google’ description on the back. Don’t ask me what ‘with Google’ means. I didn’t understand it back then and still don’t understand it today.

So I guess he doesn’t want to work for Google ever again! There are a couple of points that Ulf raised that seem to be a common cry amongst people who have seen the G1 - ‘Where do I plug in my headphones?’ and ‘No video player?’. For some strange reason, the powers that be have seen no to include a 3.5mm headphone jack or built-in video file support! That’s fine, I’ll play YouTube media at full volume on a ‘low cost data plan’! Come on Google/T-Mobile, you’ll have to do better than that.

Some valid points Ulf but I’m not sure how well your current employers, MySpace, will view these comments considering their recent collaboration with Google on Open Social!

Popularity: 49% [?]

aka Android based handset

It hasn’t been officially launched yet but images are already in the wild. Do a little digging on the T-Mobile site and you’ll shots like this:

The handset, apparently designated G1, will be officially unveiled later today. Cometh the hour, cometh the insatiable hordes - there seems to be a huge appetite for info on this handset with little or no marketing on Google or T-Mobiles part. Not surprisingly, Google participation is enough to guarantee a huge following.

So, it’s only a matter of hours before we get the official announcement. In the meantime and just in case you haven’t seen them, here’s the rumoured G1 specs:

• One touch access to: Search, Maps, Gmail, Youtube, Calendar, and Google Talk
• Gmail account and data plan required
• GPS
• 3.1 MegaPixel camera
• Dimensions: 4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 in
• Weight 5.6 ounces
• 480×320 65K color screen
• 5 hour talk time, 130 hour standby time
• Expandable up to 8GB

Popularity: 49% [?]

…according to Google

Figures forecasthing the sale of up to 130,000+ Android handsets are being touted by Google and T-Mobile. Apparently, the sheer level of anticipation over the Android-based mobile phones has analyists suggesting sales in the region of 400,000 handsets by 2009. Whilst I agree that there would appear to be a strong interest in Android handsets, I’m not so sure these figures add up especially when you consider how little marketing has been done so far. This means that the end of year market share of 4% that Google and T-Mobile want will be extremely hard going.

Now, if you think that T-Mobile is aiming high, take a look at this - HTC and Google are thinking even bigger. Some rumours suggest that around 700,000 handsets will shipped worldwide in order to prevent shortages! Now that’s thinking big.

HTC and T-Mobile are the only companies looking for big gains. Apple has sold a huge number of iPhones, both generation 1 and 3G, albeit on the back of a lot of hype and a huge marketing campaign. But they’re not stopping there. Jobs and Co are hoping to sell 10 million iPhones by 2009!

The key battleground for Google and Apple will be the availability of apps that can be used to customise the handsets. Currently, 1 - 0 to Apple but we mustn’t forget that the Android OS is Linux based and will have huge appeal to the Open Source commmunity. This rather clever move on the part of Google could just tip the odds.

I’m going to put my feet up with a beer and watch as battle commences. By the time the dust settles…I’ll be very drunk!

Popularity: 31% [?]

Only £2.99, but only for a limited time. This app, which puts Google Earth on your iPhone, usually costs $10. Now I have to admit it’s pretty impressive; touch screen control of Google Earth and integration into the iPhones GPS makes this application a must have - even if only for the ‘look at me’ factor!

Other nice little features include highlight locations with Wikipedia information and Flickr phont’s, where provided. You can even take photos of locations visited and add them to the Earthscape database. This images can then be presented to other users with geotags attached.

Admittedly, Google Earth is free but the level of integration in EarthScape puts makes it worth every penny.

Popularity: 30% [?]

But not until 2010!

Ok, I admit that it’s some way off but I’m pleased that Mozilla has finally decided to take aim at the mobile market.  The latest info comes as Mitchell Baker, chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation, laid out her plans for the coming two years.

Other plans include making more internet data public and developing existing products to be more effective.

Baker is also committed to expanding the role of Firefox and growing its market share, at thet same time as developing new browser technologies such as Aurora.

This isn’t new news. Mozilla is already working on a mobile version of the Firefox browser but no delivery dates have ever been announced. Baker’s current stand is that she will not commit to an explicit timeline. So, in line with current policy, expect the Mozilla mobile browser release ‘when it’s ready’!

Popularity: 66% [?]

Doubles Market Share in A Year

The economies of the world are falling apart but Blackberrys market share is up (to the tune of 17.4%) according to Gartner. Admittedly, the market is still dominated by Nokia, which shipped 15.3 million handsets although their figure fell from 50.8% a year ago to 47.5%.

RIM sold a total of  5.6 million smartphones during April through June, that’s up from 2.5 million a year ago. Key growth areas for RIM have been outside their main business market.

Nokia won’t take this lying down. Expect them to add functionality to the N-series multimedia phones (if they don’t they’re going to lose even more market share).

Credit Suisse said it expects Nokia’s smartphone market share to fall to 41.6 percent in 2009, hurting profit margins.

Gartner said global smartphone sales growth almost halved from the first quarter to 15.7 percent.

Although current economic trends have hurt smartphone sales badly the launch of the iPhone 3G has reinvigorated the market - everyone is buying it!

To add even more hardship for Nokia, it’s been announced that HTC sales have more than doubled over the past year, hitting 1.3 milliion sales and pushing HTC up from seventh place to third position in the market.

With figures like these you’d hardly believe that the economists of the workd are predicting doom and gloom!

Popularity: 47% [?]