Seems like Google is chopping the Nexus One. Now I was always skeptical about the whole Android thing since specially it was like Google showing the finger to all their partners (Motorola, HTC, and others) that had chosen Android as their platform of choice but I am quite surprised that they killed it after only 6 months. I guess they saw the numbers and were smart enough to read between the lines. I wonder if there weren’t other deals in the background to lead them to that decision as well. Interestingly enough I was playing around with one today (not the first time I did but perhaps the first time I really tried things) and I have to say they have quite a bit of catching up to do compared to the iPhone. The device didn’t respond well to my clicks on the screen. Not sure if my fingers were too dry or what not but I have never experienced that on my iPhone. Also it wasn’t always super clear as to when I was supposed to press the menu to exit from an app versus hitting the “return” key to do the same thing. Also it took me a while to realize the home screen was not showing all the apps. Only the apps you select to have on your home screen. Now that may just be cause my brain is predisposed to expect iPhone behaviour.
UI aside, I think the biggest barrier to entry for them will be transiting folks from the iPhone. I now have about 26 GB of music properly cataloged / classified / organized within iTunes. Of that 26 GB, bunch of them are MP3s I converted from my CDs, others I acquired one way or another, and about 600 on them purchased from iTunes. Unless I have a way to connect an Android phone over to iTunes, I am likely not going to move over. Now I see there are “backdoor” ways to get your music over but then you lose iTunes which would be a bummer (note I use to not like iTunes and prefer Winamp but that changed when I bought an iPod). Also as you saw from how I turned my new phone into an iBrick, I am getting a bit worry about using backdoors to do things. Another thing Android will have to battle will be the apps people have purchased for their iPhones. Will they throw away all of that? Well I guess I am jumping ahead assuming the iPhone has the market cornered which is far from the truth but unless Android provides the same user experience that the iPhone provides, they will have some a hard time. Some days I just long for how easy things to use to be … here is a picture of my first walkman.
