HTCWill Verizon really open its Droid?
Open up the Droid
Verizon's recent iPhone attack ad featuring its upcoming Droid smartphone has the tech world buzzing, and iPhone fans are taking notice. The iPhone Blog even posted a point-by-point reply to the commercial's claims. While most of its arguments center on minutia (see the bit about the keyboard) the iPhone Blog makes one very good point concerning open development.
"Really, Verizon, with your history, you want to play that card?" Rene Ritchie wrote. "Android is an about face for you, not a two-face. We'll wait and see on this one." Indeed, we will have to wait and see. Though the Google Android OS is all about being open, Verizon's has a long history of locking down Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS on its phone. What's more, it imposed a frustrating and poorly designed standardized menu interface across its handsets.
On the upside, Verizon has been drifting away from its control-freak past over the past year, but Android marks a distinct change. If Verizon is to deliver Android as it's intended to be, then it will allow for real user customization of the device and not customization as the carrier wants you to have it. Come on, Verizon, be the "dumb pipe" that customers want.
Kent German is a senior editor for cell phone reviews at CNET. When he's not testing the newest handsets on the market, he's blogging about cell phone news for Crave. In his On Call column, he answers reader questions and gives his take on the rapidly changing mobile industry. E-mail Kent.
Consumers in the US have long been badly served by properiety and closed systems, such firms consider the bottom line first, and cutomer last.
Well actually that's not "business", Business generally has consideration for the long term relationship with the primary revenue source. Sacrificing the customer over short term improvements in stock prices called "improving the bonus of senior management", and has recently got the attention of government.
Der_Amerikaner has ir right - Real Business is about the relationship not the transaction.
i'm not saying apple is perfect either.....4.0 better be an revolutionary step for the OS rather than an evolutionary step....and i think its about time for them to debut a "pro" level device alongside a refreshed 3gs.....and personally, there is nothing about this device to me that holds a candle to the hd2
gotta love how all these companies that were left for dead (palm, mot) just have to post a video or two and leak a couple specs to the public and suddenly they are the heir apparent/chosen one to be the "iphone killer".....wow doesn't seem like a bunch of people desperately wanting the iphone to fail bestowing us with their knee-jerk reactions to every newly announced phone with better than average specs.....and the icing on the cake with this situation is that suddenly verizon....big read....likened to the old iron curtain is now the new beacon of hope for openness and customization?!?!?! whats next? Is Obama gonna be given the nobel peace prize for maintaining one war while initiating a surge in another??? oh.....wait.....
For one, they have already opened their networks to a wide variety of cellular modems and other devices, which had previously not been allowed. Maybe money talks.. cellular right now it the ideal way to maintain universal connectivity, at least below certain bandwidth limits. The old Verizon would cede this market to other companies.
It's also a very good time to do this. Verizon has had a miserable collection of Smart Phones... Blackberries (fine if you're in their target market, no point for most of the "pocket computer" crowd that the iPhone has addressed) and old, known-to-be-EOLed Treos. Every other carrier at this very moment has a much better Smart Phone solution for many of us.
So, money again.. they adapt, or they fail. They're big enough to take a leadership role in this... the only reason I care, personally, is that Verizon is the only 3G that's reliable at my house. If network wasn't an issue, I'd probably have a T-Mobile Android phone already. They could have treated this new thing just like Sprint and T-Mobile did.. hey, lookie here, new Smart Phone.
But where's the fun in that... the Droid really does look like the best iPhone competitor yet. I'm already pretty much sold... unless some evil is revealed in the next two weeks, I'll be in line as soon as possible. I'm totally in the target market for the iPhone, I'm surrounded by them, even my wife keeps saying "why don't you just get the damn iPhone". But I'm also not in the target market, simply because I understand the problems with Apple's closed market, and believe I know better than Steve Jobs what I'd like my networked, pocket computer (which we all still call "phone", though traditional voice telephony is only a tiny subset of the real functions here) should be running, in terms of software.
I also see Android as doing for this market what MS-DOS and Windows did for the PC market, only better. For one, it's actually a decent foundation.. not perfect, but getting better. It's free, which the hardware manufacturers love, given the crazy competition in the handset business. They can customize it (the Droid is a "Google Experience" phone, so it's done the Google way, but there's no requirement for this) their way... Apple doesn't allow any customization: user, app, or network provider, on the iPhone.
So yeah.. I've been on Verizon for three years, I've been furious about all the evil they've done, taking features out of "feature" phones like the RAZR. But even at that, they didn't really have a way of crippling my old Treo, other than pushing against certain features.. like no WiFi. The feature set of the Droid tells me they aren't pulling this crap now. I will absolutely give them one more chance, just based on the quality of their network. One more chance.
The Mac actually had great market share before Windows was improved.
Same will hold true for Android devices.
BoyGeniusReport has unveiled the upcoming Verizon entry-level Android device, the "Calgary," which will use the MOTOBLUR interface launched with the T-Mobile Cliq.
The leaked pictures show a 3MP camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, GPS, Wi-Fi, a microSD slot, and a full slide out QWERTY keypad.
BGR says the the "OS builds running on it are incredibly smooth as well as responsive."
Too bad all the social networking sites are going crazy over Android/Droid.
And I really don't feel that the Android marketplace will make this a special circumstance either, considering that VZW left the Windows Marketplace for Mobile alone when it came out, doesn't touch Blackberry App World, and is letting Samsung run their own widget store whenever the Omnia II feels like coming out (I stopped waiting for that phone and got an Imagio instead, and I have no regrets, lol). And if anyone's been paying attention to VZW lately, you'll see that they've been really pushing customization lately with their own revamped app store for their feature phones. And now that it seems their days of removing Wi-Fi and crippling GPS seem to be over, I really don't think there's anything to be worried about.
Verizon has always tried to suck every penny from you. ie Why do I have to pay for ringtones even though my phone supported MP3 ringtones (but the feature was disabled by VZW )?
Let's hope they turn a leaf. Charge me for using your network, but let me do what I want with my phone, dammit!
looks like vzw did the right thing...
That will also be true for Apple on the iPhone, though I suspect they'll hang on to their proprietary iTunes and App stores as long as possible. It will be a while before open development looks better on a spreadsheet than a locked and loyal customer base.
As a flash developer, I've been waiting for a long time to have a phone I can show my work on and develop content for. Flash on Android sounds like it will make that happen, and phones that dilute that promise will ultimately develop a reputation as phones that can't run the Android apps that others will.
Since Google apparently had a big hand in developing the Droid phone, I'd be disappointed if delivering on one of Android's core values isn't part of the deal.
iPhone's hardware is falling behind the times while the Droid and other smartphones (e.g. Palm Pre) are coming out with hardware that provides better experience and value. It's clear that the iPhone will soon sink in the midst of better devices if they don't release yet another model (3Gsx?). It will be an uphill battle for iPhone as the 3Gs had just been released 4 months ago; rushing a new model into the market will only promote a higher percentage of bugs and flaws.
Meanwhile, 3rd party developers are already cloning their apps across the Android (droid) and webOS (palm pre) operating systems to gain better visibility and added revenue.
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by JoinWowMobile
October 22, 2009 1:08 PM PDT
- Android yes but for how much??? I left Verizon for WOW Mobile. I was paying $179.00 per month because I needed unlimited Internet. WOW Mobile a new online store offers Android 1.6 on the MyTouch for only $79.95. It?s mobile voip and no data transfer cap! Checkout http://www.joinwowmobile.net it?s awesome IMHO!
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