So…. we’ve been wondering what our favorite underdog company has been up to recently. Hmm? Wait… which underdog? Apple? Nah, couldn’t possibly be. The other favorite underdog. The Googdog.
Ah, yes. Android ring any bells? Google just announced that development of the rumored G-phone was in progress and the G-phone would be running Google’s own software stack named Android. To the chagrin of many (still not quite sure why), there will be not one, not two, not ten, but rather 50 or more G-phones. This should be good news, right? I mean, numerous phone manufacturers producing their own version of the Goog-phone gives us many form factors to choose from, no? We can all be one gigantic happy family carrying phones made by the Open Handset Alliance.
Why do I find this reality more troublesome than one G-phone, made by the (soon-to-be) newly minted Google: Mobile Phone Manufacturer Extraordinaire? Let me explain. I use G software everyday. G-News is my homepage, this is where all my general news comes from. G-Search is the one and only search I use. I think G-Mail is the best email, hands down. Nothing else compares. Let’s not even start on G-Maps or G-Talk.
I respect Google. I do. I do. However, I don’t like the idea of them having all this data on me. I’ll admit it. I generally don’t use G-Search and G-News while logged into G-Mail (yes, Firefox automagically clears my cookies each time I close it). It is more than enough that the G-System knows everything about my life. Compiling my search and usage patterns is just going over that invisible line. I find it quite disturbing that the G-System knows exactly where I live, what my morning or evening routines are, who I visit and when, what kinds of food I like. The list goes on and on. Hence why I do what I can to minimize how much of this info can be tied together to paint a day in the life of yours truly.
This brings me back to the reason for this tangent. One G-phone made by the big G, running G software, designed to make life convenient by anticipating your every need. Sounds kosher. The only caveat is that all this convenience will be based on data collected by monitoring your habits. It wouldn’t be a big deal if the phone was standalone. If the phone didn’t ‘phone home’ so to speak. I wouldn’t mind one device that knew every single thing about me if I am the only one with access to it. We all know this won’t be the case. Everything would be stored on G-Server somewhere and a quick search of one name can pull up all that info. Erk. Not so tempting after all.
Still, no big deal. There will be tons of other phones from other manufacturers free of G-Stuff. Ah, what a great thing it is to have freedom of choice. Well… the Open Handset Posse just limited that choice. If most big names in the mobile industry are running Android on their smart phones, that leaves few smart phones to choose from. Granted, Nokia isn’t on that list… and I am a huge S60 fan… as long as they continue making kickass smart phones, I will probably continue shelling out money.
However, variety is the spice of life and one day, I am going to want to try a different smart phone. Will Android be the only other option available (after killing off the craptacular WM and BB)? I know, this post is a week too early. We still haven’t seen what the Android stack looks like or what it’s capable of and I’m already talking Apocalypse. Well, Google has been planning their entry into the mobile market for at least a couple years now. They apparently stealth-bought the startup company coding Android in ’05. I will bet my left liver that they have huge plans for it and we ain’t seen nothing yet. We will see what we see next week. I’ll leave this post hanging till then.
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