Comments on: The Magic Phone

By: William

William — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:41:23 +0000

I’ve just seen the Steve Ballmer (Microsoft CEO) and Nigel Clifford (Symbian CEO) speeches about Android (http://www.weshow.com/us/p/22898/microsofts_ceo_discusses_googles_smartphone) and they really don’t seem to be worried about Android, as we can see in their smiley and calm faces. I think this competition is very healthy to IT market and good to costumers.

By: Alex Hortin

Alex Hortin — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:48:01 +0000

since I am running a site entirely about the OpenMoko, let me be the first to tell you that this in no way should affect the OpenMoko’s progress. The OpenMoko is already much further along, and without seeing anything working from google, except the announcement of an SDK coming out on 12 Nov.
Also, those looking for a totally freed phone might not be happy with the bundled software that comes due to the partnership of this alliance. Just the fact that this alliance exists means that google will be pressured on limiting freedom, because just for one example, imagine all the money t-mobile would lose if people were able to use Vo-ip technology anywhere with an internet connection, and not just at home. Or for one more the simple use of custom ringtones. No one can argue that the iphone is not capable of using ringtones from your library, but you can’t due to ATT lockins.
Even though apple has announced an SDK for it’s iPhone, features enabling a user to cost a company money will not make ATT happy. ATT is making too much money and paying apple too much for exclusive rights. The same can be said for google with its android.

By: Ian Rae

Ian Rae — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:49:41 +0000

There’s a lot of valid criticism going on around this announcement.
However: the existing market for mobile software sucks. The aspiration of putting together a more open platform for mobile devices is a good one, since we really need more competition. More competition leads to more fodder for selection. More fodder for selection will give us better solutions.
There’s lots of tough talk and marketing spin in this space right now, but I’m personally looking forward to lots of players trying to deliver cost effective and flexible mobile platforms over the next few years.