The "evil empire" makes its phone debut

Fresh from a trip to New York and OMMA Global last week, the debate about "Is Google Evil?" still rings in my head. Despite your personal opinion about Google, they are undeniably innovators in the online space (and more recently in very, very "offline" spaces...hence the evil empire metaphor!)

This week marks the debut of the long awaited and much hyped Google Android cellphone (G1). If you are a tech/gadget geek like me, you have been waiting for more details. What will this magic phone do exactly? How will it integrate with the ever expanding list of cool Google apps? And perhaps most importantly, will it be cooler than my iPhone thus requiring me to run out and purchase one immediately?! All was revealed yesterday when Google and T-Mobile unveiled the new phone. It has so many cool features it sent my head spinning but it also has a couple of shortcomings. Read on for the good, the bad and the ugly on G1.

The Good:

1. Make no mistake about it, Google intends to take the iPhone market head on with this new phone. There are just too many conveniently addressed iPhone shortcomings in the product for it to be coincidence. Full touch screen, check. Wi-Fi & Bluetooth, check. Finger slide to unlock, check. Downloadable apps, music, Google maps, full screen web browsing, check check check and check. Its even got an accelerometer that rotates the full screen when you turn the phone. All this sounds very familiar right? With the popularity of the iPhone, these became almost cost of entry features for Google. They have essentially said, "I will see you all these neat features Apple, and raise you a bunch of stuff people miss on the iPhone"-- a physical keyboard (hidden a flip away beneath the screen), a memory expansion card slot, a removable battery and voice dialing just to name a few.

2. With the list of cool, free Google apps expanding by the day, it was widely speculated that G1 would make use of many of them in ways the iPhone hasn't been able to (yet?). They have certainly delivered and in a big way with the integration of Google Maps for one. Yes, you can get Google maps on the iPhone but not like this! In "Street View" (where photos of actual locations are taken from ground level), you can hold the phone perpendicular to the ground and get a 3D map experience—and as you turn your body, the map photo rotates like a photographic compass, matching what you see on the phone to what you see on the street. I was giddy when I saw this feature! No more emerging from the subway and wandering a full block in the wrong direction before you realize you were...err...going in the wrong direction!

3. While Apple has signed a seemingly never-ending exclusive contract with AT&T, Google has already announced that it will launch first with T-Mobile but will quickly add another 30 cellphone carriers. For those iPhone users who feel like slaves to AT&T or for those who have been apprehensive about dropping their current carriers to go to AT&T, Google's strategy is very appealing.

4. The Android operating system is free and completely open-source. What that means to non-development geeky people is that any company can make changes to the software without consulting or paying Google. Unlike, Apple and AT&T, T-Mobile and Google say they won’t censor programs that they don’t approve of. Feel like writing a Skype-ish program that lets people avoid using T-Mobile minutes all together? Go for it they say...now that is true committment to the open-source platform!

The Bad:

Yes it's great that Google isn't with AT&T but T-Mobile? Seriously?? We complain about AT&T's ridiculous 3G network but T-Mobile's 3G only covers 19 cities at launch!!! (AT&T has 280 3G cities). On the flip side though, I go back to The Good, point #4...G1 is totally open in ways I can really never imagine iPhone being. You can unlock the phone after 90 days of ownership without any repercussions (ie. use any SIM card from any carrier on it).

The Ugly:

Despite the attempted aesthetic & functional similarities, G1 is still not the iPhone. The added features on the G1 have resulted in added complexity with 5 physical buttons on the phone as opposed to iPhone's 1. In addition the familiar touch screen (albeit without the pinching and zooming functionality), G1 also has a trackball and arrow keys. And that nifty keyboard and removable battery make the G1 a lot thicker and lamer looking than the iPhone's sleek physique. And, of course, it’s not an iPod. It plays music, but no video (except on YouTube of course).

So is Android as beautiful and captivating as the iPhone? No. Nor is it backed by the insanely effective marketing machine that is Apple. But it is head and shoulders above Windows Mobile.

The debate over whether Google is evil or not rages on here at Rockett Interactive but one thing is for sure--G1's open-source platform will undoubtedly bring some very interesting and revolutionary developments to the mobile market and we are very excited to stay on top of it in an effort to help our clients understand this ever-changing and burgeoning medium.