iPhone vs Android (HTC G1) - iPhone wins but Android is a future contender

First Look at the HTC G1

Having registered as an Android developer I could legitimately buy myself an unlocked HTC G1 Android phone. This early Christmas present would give me an insight into how far Google are likely to eat into the market which Apple are starting to own.

An encouraging article on the  "Google's Ambitious Android" gave me hope that the G1 would give Apple cause for concern.

At first sight the G1 is thicker and clunkier than the slim iPhone. It is thicker because it conceals a full Qwerty keyboard which levers out from the side. Whilst on the subject of input and controls it has a trackball, touch screen, volume control (similar to iPhone) and camera button on the edge and menu button, back button, home button and make call and end call buttons. So many controls you'd think it would make it easier to use. But unfortunately it didn't. I think I found that having to switch the phone's orientation every time I wanted to type something in was a bit annoying. That said it did make it easier to type in things like passwords than it was on the iPhone's soft keyboard.

I got everything working and everything except email access (IMAP) to Exchange seemed to work well. The Google applications worked especially well as you'd expect.  I particularly like the use of Contacts and Calendars which appeared to be just another view to the same things in Gmail. For the first time I didn't need to think about Synchronising, something which I have never got to work properly regardless of the device. They all fail eventually and you get forced to decide that one set of contacts should overwrite another. With Android at last you don't seem to need to do that. 

Android vs iPhone

Overall I'd say that Android is a promising O/S and there is good developer support and good commercial components backing the services provided. The G1 is a pretty good handset but no way as intuitive as the iPhone.  I've probably given the iPhone more of my time but as I recall I liked it from the very first moment. I think that this is the problem faced by the competition, Apple has put together a fantastic package, consumers have given it the 'thumbs-up' and the market share is reflecting that.

A recent article highlighted the success of the iPhone showing that it is number 2 in the world of Smartphones with 17.3% of the market. It has overtaken the Blackberry and both have chipped away at Nokia's dominance. Another article showed that the iPhone has 30% of the US market, and combined with Blackberry two thirds of the US smartphone market is spoken for. 

I guess it is a measure of the impact of the iPhone that all new smartphones need to compete with the feature set introduced by Apple: touch screen, tilt sensitivity, applications store etc. And there is absolutely no reason why the competition can't copy these features, they should even be able to improve on things like storage, camera quality (and phone quality). But putting these features into such an aspirational package is probably difficult and integrating so well with the market leading media retailing portal (iTunes) is probably impossible. 

But Google, more than any other brand has something really special to bring to mobile. The range of on-line Google products and the opportunity to make them mobile is tantalising. Indeed the iPhone already provides access to several of these products.  Couple this with the Open Handset Alliance and you have Apple taking on the rest of the world's handset manufacturers. 

So who now are the contenders for leadership in the Smartphone category?

Although, for my money, the G1 is not up to the job of knocking the iPhone off its perch, I wouldn't bet against Android in the longer run. These are two horses that are definitely in the race. However I'm starting to worry about Nokia who have been so dominant for so long. I hope they can really reinvent the smartphone paradigm. 

One would think that Windows Mobile could have got better sooner to really be a contender. They have some catching up to do and need to show more leadership in this market, can they do this without more internet bases assets? I'm not sure, but they may be wasting their dominance in enterprise email systems. RIM are rising to the challenge, especially with the Storm and they have a niche hold on the business market. I think long terms they will stay in their niche and hold onto it, but some of their market will be lost forever to cooler products. 

Comments

[Pete Shaw]

Sorry to 'abuse' your blog Hugh. Just read the shocking news (to me) about Griff on the dialogue website and felt the need to get in touch. Jeez - I can't believe it - it's left me a little shell shocked to say the least.

Pete