NEW YORK: Anyone expecting the soon- to-be-launched Google phone to change the market like Apple’s iPhone has over the past year will likely be disappointed — for now.
Industry insiders who have worked on Google Inc’s Android mobile operating system say it will struggle in the near term to match the consumer enthusiasm generated by Apple Inc when its iPhone redefined the touch-screen phone market and greatly improved mobile Web surfing.
Instead, Google sees Android as an open-source platform for designing mobile devices, saying it will encourage innovation by allowing outside software developers to tinker with the system and create better mobile programs and services.
But these things take time and the first phone using Android, code-named the Google “Dream” phone, is unlikely to wow consumers. The device is made by Taiwan’s HTC Corp. Sources familiar with the plan say Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile plans to introduce it in New York on September 23.
“I’m not sure the consumer experience is significantly better than that of the iPhone,” says Rajeev Chand, a wireless analyst at investment bank Rutberg & Co, who has tried out an early version of Android.
“When the iPhone came out the experience was several orders of magnitude better than anything that was out there.”
Google, its partner carriers and application developers hope the Android platform will drive even more mobile Web surfing than the iPhone, which has helped Web usage rocket in comparison to other smartphones.
Source:http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1190817
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