Predicting The Google Phone

An anonymous reader writes "Inside The GPhone: What To Expect From Google's Android Alliance (an article at Information Week) argues that you can predict what the GPhone(s) will look like very easily, simply by listing the technologies of the Open Handset Alliance partners. According to this theory, the phone will have a user interface from Sweden's TAT, VCAST-like multimedia capabilities powered by PacketVideo Corp., and an iPhone-like capacitive touch-screen, from Synaptics. Hardware-wise, it'll probably be built around Texas Instruments' OMAP processors, which enable a single-chip world phone (GSM/EDGE/GPRS). "While the GPhone won't be revolutionary, it'll connect the pieces in pleasantly new ways," argues author Alex Wolfe. Should Apple be concerned?"

5 years behind apple

[backslashdot]

According to some patents, Apple may be working on cooler stuff like pressure sensitive screens etc.

Also, the resolution of most Open Handest/android applications are going to be for QVGA screens since that is what the SDK encourages. It will look like shrunken crap on VGA or WVGA screens, so dont expect any handset vendors to make decently priced phones above QVGA.

So, in short, the iPhone 2 will be 4 years ahead of any Google Open Handset Alliance phone.

-Johan

PS> Maybe google should have made this platform good for non mobvile phone stuff too like for in cars or whatever

What about the Neo?

[thefekete]

Has any one tried running android on a Neo1973?

Re:the gPhone and the iPhone are different markets

[2nd Post!]

Funny, I would have said:
Apple makes hardware that works
Google makes software that works

You misinterpret the iPhone's initial market if you think it is suitable for business (it isn't), for instant messaging (it doesn't have that feature), or social networking (unless you want to use the built in Safari web browser).

All the iPhone does (for now) is:
Phone
Internet
Media
A light smattering of accessory applications

And I only paid $300 for mine. $600 was so four months ago. The 8GB iPhone is only $399.

And at the things it does, meaning phone, internet, and media, I have never seen another phone nearly as good. And as time goes on, Apple will be adding more and more features with, I presume, the same usability and polish that the first three applications shipped with.

There is significant overlap between Google and Apple, in this case, in that Apple provides the ultimate prototypical platform for a gPhone while Google provides the ultimate framework for developing the applications and UI that the iPhone OR gPhone would need.

sleek userinterface?

[mixenmaxen]

Am I the only one to think that the "sleek user interface" looks like Winamp pimped up by a Paris Hilton loving teenager? Not exactly a sleek user interface.

I think that Apple has nothing to worry about in this regard.

good luck

[burris]

I remember when ACE was announced. For you youngin's, the Advanced Computing Environment was an alliance of Compaq, Microsoft, MIPS Computer Systems, Digital Equipment Corporation, and the Santa Cruz Operation to build the next generation of computers in 1991. Basically, they wanted to wrestle control of the industry away from Intel. Steve Jobs was famously quoted as saying industry alliances always fail because there are just too many competing interests. He challenged people to name some successful industry alliances.

Can anyone name some successful computer industry alliances composed of competing members? This alliance has tons of members who compete directly with each other: handset manufacturers, software companies, chip manufacturers. The idea that these companies are going to align all of their interests, come together and produce anything is pretty far fetched IMHO.

Re:I think I can answer that one...

[snoyberg]

I, on the other hand, didn't want an iPhone and do want a gPhone.

My question would be why do you want something you haven't even seen yet? For all we know the thing will be a monstrosity that doesn't work well anywhere. Are you simply saying you want one because it's Google or is there reason, other than a different form of fanboyism?

I'm not saying there's something wrong with supporting a company you like, just wondering whether there's some justification for your statement other than liking said company.

You are absolutely correct, the way I stated that sounded very much like fanboyism. Let me rephrase: before the iPhone came out, I was not interested in it at all based on the hype I'd heard surrounding it. By comparison, the gPhone sounds like something that I would want based on the hype.

Fair enough? If you're wondering, the main thing I like is the openness. Even if I wish they supported a language besides Java, it's still better than nothing.

Re:the gPhone and the iPhone are different markets

[Anonymous Coward]

I can do that too..

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22iphone+problems%22 [google.com]

and mine got more hits.

Re:the gPhone and the iPhone are different markets

[Anonymous Coward]

ROTFLMAO [google.com]

Is it really an alliance?

[rmcd]

I think that calling this an alliance is just PR. Maybe I'm missing something, but they don't all have to produce the same thing. They don't have to use exactly the same application software, they don't have to use the same form factor, they don't have to agree on which features to ship or enable.

This seems more to me like the industry following Compaq and standardizing on the IBM BIOS in the early 1980s. With that decision out of the way, you could produce computers in a variety of form factors with whatever software you wanted. There was a base on which to build.

In this case, Google seems firmly in control because they've already built a basic and extensible software platform. They're not asking for agreement, they're saying here it is, who wants to use it, and who wants to extend it?

It seems to me that what's critical is gaining critical mass before the platform forks (which it will eventually).