More than 23 Google Android phones here, or in the works!
This posting is by way of follow-up to my recent post, “Real competition for the iPhone?”, which talked about the ‘Droid’ phone rumored to be released by Verizon very, very soon. Their device would be probably the most-hyped release of an Android phone yet.
But today I wanted to point out that popular technology site TechCrunch currently lists TWENTY-THREE, yes that’s 23 different phones either currently available, to be available soon, or rumored to be revealed soon, all which will operate on the Google Android operating system. Note also that all of the major carriers (T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T) are represented by this list of phones, and some of them tied to multiple of these devices.
Imagine your choice of cell carrier and choosing between several phones, all which run the same applications! This is truly going to be a significant threat to Apple’s iPhone… and of course to AT&T which as you know is currently the only carrier which sells the iPhone. But you will also notice that at least one of these Android phones will work on the AT&T network as well.
Click here to read the TechCrunch article I reference here.
Real competition for the iPhone?
Anyone with their TV on last probably saw Verizon’s DROID commercial… encouraging people to visit droiddoes.com
Apparently, this is a Motorola device running the Google Android operating system– many people believe devices that run the Android system are the biggest threat on the horizon for the otherwise-dominant iPhone.
Just to be clear– the Google Android operating system can run on various devices on different cell phone networks. This will allow people choice in devices, choice in wireless carriers, but a set of downloadable applications that will work on all of those different phones and wireless networks, assuming the phone they are using is a phone running the Google Android operating system.
Here’s a snippet from an article posted yesterday about this:
I’m not going to be foolish enough to call this an iPhone killer for the simple fact that the iPhone’s developer community is still miles ahead of Android’s regardless of how good Droid turns out to be. But don’t be surprised if you start hearing about people who quit the iPhone in favor of the Droid. After all, even if the phone doesn’t turn out to be quite as polished as the iPhone, it will be running on a network that will actually let them connect their calls consistently.
One final thing to note: given how direct an attack Verizon is making on the iPhone, it sure doesn’t sound like the iPhone will be making the leap to Verizon any time soon.
From this individual’s comments and plenty of others, it is clear that the consensus is that the iPhone market share is fairly dominant, and that eating into it will take a while.
But in the meantime, for those of us who’ve not yet taken the iPhone plunge, there may be an exciting alternative soon!
Have you ever been strangled by your cell phone?
No, I haven’t either.
But the AT&T network has been strangled by the iPhone recently.
I’ve started a blog posting entitled “My junky phone – savings or a symbol?” that I really need to finish – but in light of all the press in recent days about iPhone’s service problems, I’m glad I waited… BUT I couldn’t wait to pass THIS on to you all out there, several of whom I know have iPhones.
Despite TechCrunch having reported on this issue months ago, the rest of the media is starting to catch on… the AT&T cellular network is being bogged down by the intense data demands of the typical iPhone user, leading to slowdowns for many users.
You’ll notice in the ZDNet article below the author blames Apple for the problem– but, I assure you that Apple is not happy about this, regardless of whether the blame is rightly theirs or not. I also think this bad press about the iPhone’s slowness, even if it is not systemwide, pretty much assures that other carries will have the iPhone available soon. Although, it’s a tightrope Apple and the cell companies must walk. Making the device available to other carries will help spread out the cellular network load to other carriers, and yet it is also going to increase the total absolute load on cell networks, as people will be rushing to get the iPhone with their existing provider, that they were leery of leaving for AT&T.
Coverage of this issue the last few days includes these articles:
NY Times: Customers Angered as iPhones Overload AT&T
Wall Street Journal: AT&T Gets a Fuzzy Signal on Apple’s iPhone
Also.. NY Times March ’09 article: 3G Phones Exposing Networks’ Last-Gen Technology
ZDNet: iPhone users strangling the AT&T network
The iStimulus
According to this article in the NY Times yesterday, some “experts worry that the recovery may be weak, stymied by consumers’ reluctance to spend.” Oh no! We’ve got to go spend our money!
Some of the reasons why consumers are slowing their spending from the irrational highs of recent years is described in the article by Moodys.com chief economist Mark Zandi:
“Lower-income households can’t borrow, and higher-income households no longer feel wealthy,” Mr. Zandi added. “There’s still a lot of debt out there. It throws a pall over the potential for a strong recovery. The economy is going to struggle.”
Mark Zandi is describing a return to rationality among American consumers–and I couldn’t be happier. In fact, if the lower-income don’t borrow–because they can’t–and save their money instead, and if higher-income households don’t spend all they make (and save their money instead), I believe this will lead to a more stable economy over the long-run. This may not appease everyone–Cash for Clunkers, for example, was designed to stimulate spending quickly in the short-run, as some economists are convinced that is the greater need.
So, to appease those with a short-run mentality, and to excite the technology lovers out there such as myself who have not yet taken the “plunge” into the world of Apple technology bliss, I propose the first-ever iStimulus. The government will give a purchaser a $100 tax credit for every Apple device they buy – an iPod, iTouch, and yes– especially the iPhone.
This stimulus will do several things for the economy:
1) It will push me over the edge and let me whip out my debit card for the new iPhone activation fee, knowing that $100 of it isn’t all my money – it’s from the government, and so society will gladly share in the cost of my new technology purchase in the form of taxes to cover the iStimulus program.
2) As a result, I can feel good about buying something I don’t completely need. Yes, I literally do have the cash to go buy one and yes, I may or may not really need it, but the government wants me to spend–and it wants me to be a good American citizen–so it has given me an incentive to do so now.
3) It will give Apple more reasons to boast of their strong recent success. It doesn’t matter that they recently sold their 40 millionth iPod/iTouch device; this will get them closer to that 100 million mark! Yes, we may indeed create a mini-technology bubble that will eventually burst, but we can worry about that later…
In all seriousness, the one positive thing about such a stimulus is that at least for once we would be investing money into a company with a future!! And granted, there is nothing wrong with buying “wants”. But, in my opinion, when you lie to yourself and call it a need, or when you finance those wants through personal credit and the backs of society in the form of government incentives, we will find ourselves creating yet another spending bubble that we and our children will be paying for in the form of higher taxes and slower economic growth in the future.
I have personally experienced no benefit from any of the recent stimulus programs; so I say launch an iStimulus program so that more of us can feel good about this devastating economic path that the current administration and the conventional economic wisdom of the day is leading us down.
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UPDATE: You may wish to read the related posting about a proposed “WiiStimulus” by clicking here.
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