The first mobile phone based on Google's Android has just been announced.The T-Mobile G1, made by HTC has gained a lot of attention in the press with all sorts of journalists clammering to fiddle with the thing and pass verdict.
But does it live up to the hype - well, in short, no. That's not surprising though. The hardware is pretty much a standard smartphone - that they've been conservative is no surprise - it's pretty standard in the computer industry to take what’s there and fiddle with it, not to reinvent. One must remember that the software is designed to run on lots of platforms, so the first ones will be very standard. That the software looks very much like other handhelds is a bit more of a disappointment, but one has to remember that the UI is just a small part of the whole - the actual functionality is much more important. The simple truth is that its going to take time before we see if Android is really going to live up to all its been hailed as.
I think the phone would have fared better before the advent of the iPhone and all the lookalikes. That really has changed the map for handheld communications devices. The touchscreen interface looks clunky, the keyboard looks old fashioned and the UI just looks too much like Vista.
But it will be what the developers do with the platform that will be important in the months to come. Can it really carve out a niche in the smartphone market (a market which is ever-expanding) and can the right products be envisaged and realised using this open-source base. That will be the real test for Android - and if it fails, it will be quietly discarded as yet another high hope that didn't quite reach the bar.
