Last week was an eventful one for Google’s foray into mobile phones. It released the much-awaited update — called Cupcake — to its Android operating system, bringing it closer on par with smartphones such as iPhone and BlackBerry. The major upgrades include an on-screen digital keyboard, video camera, stereo Bluetooth and a direct path to upload
videos on YouTube and file photos on Picasa Web.
Even as this happened, new market data showed the
Android to be the fifth best-selling smartphone in the US, only behind three models of BlackBerry and the iPhone. It also crossed a million in US sales. Sadly, no telecom provider has bothered to get the G1 phone to India, a result probably of the iPhone flop. That is not to say the G1, made by Taiwan’s HTC, is not available here. You can buy it online, as I did for about Rs 25,000, but now stores such as UniverCell are stocking them. Is it worth the effort of buying a phone that is not supported locally? It is a choice users will have to make even though sellers are offering six months warranty. But as far as features go, there are sound reasons to do so. The G1 has all the features smartphone users want — touch screen, Wi-Fi, GPS, 3G and full QWERTY keyboard. Remember there is no BlackBerry with both Wi-Fi and 3G, and no iPhone has, or will have, a QWERTY.
The G1’s touch experience matches the best in the market; the user interface is intuitive and visually simple, and search, considered by many to be the new killer app on the mobile, is expectedly everywhere. Bold, large-sized buttons and text are particularly appealing to the 40+ demographic. With sync, G1 goes beyond the PC. It syncs everything — contacts, calendar etc — with the user’s Gmail account. The major thing still lacking is support for attachments, notably the PDF and Excel.
If the iPhone is aspirational, and the BlackBerry decidedly the business phone, the Android is a functional one. To those not obsessed with music, and less concerned about blazing speeds for email, there are a few reasons to opt for the G1.
One, G1 is a natural choice because much of what we do on the Internet revolves around Google, and the search giant is bringing a lot of its features to the mobile. Two, Android is winning acceptance as an OS for netbooks, too. With that, the range of Android apps that will become available should soon match the range of iPhone apps. Finally, at least one market researcher, Informa Telecoms & Media, expects the Android to outsell the iPhone by 2012.
—bmkrishna@epmltd.com