Google phone is out with nothing interesting. I had good expectations but came to know that it sucks. Here are the reasons:
- $179 and you can’t make a video! : Is Google mad?
- Only available on T-Mobile. Is it good marketing?
- Looks like a brick! Not as slim as iPhone. You can hit a mugger with it and run away.
- Interface seems to be a “rip off” of UBuntu Linux. Its mobile man! there should me something different.
- The logo sucks. It looks like symbol of “Men’s toilet”: Has robot instead of a man.
- All Google products are too simple in looks. Chrome is lovely but mobile OS should be glamorous.
- All over web, we can read crappy things like “Steve Jobs can loose job!”, “Open platform comes to kill iPhone”. Go home losers! Its just a lousy rip off of touch interface inspiration of iPhone.
- Marketing that sucks: Just some boring videos. They need a marketing campaign instead of giving away $10 Million to nerdy developers.
- Looks like a portable gaming console for kids. Not a sexy thing to show off. I don’t think anyone will even notice that you got a phone… It seems something like Nintendo DS.
- iPhone has gone too far. Google Phone needs something revolutionary for a blast. It offers nothing that’s never seen before.
So it really sucks to buy such a phone, I don’t know who will buy thousands of phones that Google has just shipped.
October 10th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
I’d have to disagree.
The Googlephone - well, this version the HTC G1 - is simply the first in a line to come from multiple manufacturers. Like anything, it’s a learning curve. But to say it sucks for some of the reasons you mention is incorrect:
1. $179 is cheaper than the iPhone. So what if it doesn’t make a video - most people don’t really use the video feature on phones apart from watching videos - something the Googlephone supports thanks to Google’s share in Youtube.
2. Fair enough, it’s only on one carrier - but then so was the iPhone when it first came out (AT&T).
3. Calling a phone out for its logo? Come on, where’s the logic in that? If you want to call a phone out, do it for (lack of) design and features, but a logo?
4. Where does it say that mobile OS should be “sexy”? Look at the majority of technology products and it’s usually been the normal, standard-looking apps, etc, that have done all the work, not the sexy OS. Look underneath Apple’s iPhone casing for an example.
5. “Offers nothing that hasn’t been seen before”? Try the tilt-screen for going in the direction of Google Maps on the GPS feature.
In essence, I agree with what you’re saying in that on many levels, the Googlephone is a little disappointing. But this is first generation - wait until the other manufacturers bring their products out and we’ll see how behind the phone is.
October 11th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
lol at android logo and the toilet logo
October 11th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
No its a cool logo from Google. You people are lol google is seeing future where robots will be common. So where should robots go and pee? That was a very big question which google resolved by developing google android.
Robots u can pee just simply grab a google android and relax your self.
October 13th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Totally disagree with you Danny $179 Google gives you a 1Gb phone expandable to 8 GB what crap is this.
Touch responsiveness sucks, you are talking about Google maps?
Google maps sucks on desktop, on iphone and on android also.
Who needs street view just give proper directions, other than search nothing has been impressive so far.
Marketing? Does Google know what marketing means, probably Google marketing team needs a 101 class.
Open platform?? Open platform means more bugs and no support.
Ubuntu is great for developers but give it to a normal user he will trash it in no time, same with gPhone.
10 years back everyone said same things Linux will make Microsoft run for its money what is linux market share??? and what is windows share ???
October 13th, 2008 at 11:07 am
@Ronn
I totally agree with you. All good phones in market are good for something unique they offer. But I cant find anything new and interesting in gPhone.
October 13th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
What a balanced and well informed post.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:06 pm
My Gphone arrived yesterday and the screen would not function. Talk to tmobile tech support and they told me it would be weeks to replace it and the tech said he had been recieving calls all day about problems with the new phone. It appears the phone is a very rushed effort. I am going to return mine for a refund and wait till my contract is up and by an Iphone.
October 25th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Most of the posts as well as the author seem to compare Iphone to Gphone. Which is much like comparing Alienware to Acer. Don’t get me wrong I think both phones (and computer companies) are fine, but they are in different price ranges for a reason. Iphone at it’s release was over 600 dollars easy, while gphone is under 200. The last post describing problems with the touch screen, if it is true would be the only thing on the whole thread that actually makes a good argument against Gphone.
Phones do not need to offer some unique feature to be sold, they just have to appeal to a demographic. In Gphone’s case it is the open source market consumer. As for being a ripoff of unbuntu, Linux is not proprietary software and unbuntu owns rights to its logo and a few applications and artwork but almost everything in unbuntu is open source and a clone of someone else’s work. Unbuntu did not create the X-windows system KDE or the Gnome Project (thats the part of the computer you see) so looking similar to unbuntu to the people who understand software and technology in the least bit past OOOH ITS SHINEY AND ITS GOTZ MORE GIGZAWATZZERZ, just confirms that it is indeed an open source based software.
I agree that the gphone should make videos though, and it should also dispense cold beverages and act as a gas mask in case of chemical warfare and lets not forget enlarging “that certain part of the male body”.. but seriously its a phone it does what phones do, it calls people. Its a good price with a lot of neat services and its much cheaper than competitors.
What sucks is that anyone lucky enough to be born into the minority of the world who can afford things like computers and cellular phones can post a blog and show the whole world how ignorant they are.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:04 am
found your site on del.icio.us today and really liked it.. i bookmarked it and will be back to check it out some more later ..
November 9th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
you spend most of the time hating apple products, yet you hat this cos it looks like an iphone (Which it doesn’t at all)
November 10th, 2008 at 5:39 am
@rmg12
Please read the post properly before commenting, I didn’t said Google Phone looks like an iPhone.
November 14th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Thats an interesting article - your blog is really good i keep coming back here all the time keep it up!
November 16th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
First of all! Great site! The Master appreciate people that write about stuff that sucks.
And also, another reason why Google Phone sucks, you can actually shut the thing down while writing a text message, as it recognizes some words as “master command”. Google sucks and so does their phone!
November 17th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
@ The Master
Thanks :)… Google recognizes some words as “master command” while typing messages! this is funny, good find!
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:58 pm
I agree android is the poorest excuse for a OS ever, no its not even close to an OS, its the most personally harmful user layer linux has ever gotten.
The whole package is nothing more than a consumer tracking system for google. Avoid anything to do with android or google for that matter, and now t-mobile as well (sad as I had spent 7 years with them before this).
An android is a robot that in someway looks like a human right? So its a misnomer from the get go. I guess what they mean is your googles robot if you use it?
Notice how the android software presents an iron wall to prevent owners from using their hardware in any useful way, while providing at least 3 built in back doors for them to abuse (criminally in my mind) their position as software/service provider. I mean do you really think for 1 second that the terminal open in background logging every keystroke (include your bank pin, passwords, etc) was a accident? If you do then I have a bridge for sale. Androids view of security is how to stop you the owner from seeing how much google is raping you while getting you to pay upward of $70 a month for the privilege.
android = Zero openness, 100% spyware.
HTC however does make some killer hardware form time to time, i.e. the touch pro or touch HD, hell, the HTC wizard was a monster in its day. Maybe when a real linux rom comes out, I’l pick up one off ebay for $25, probably by march, as I have yet to see a single G1 in the wild.
February 15th, 2009 at 12:14 am
The only thing I got out of this article is the idea that person who wrote it is still in junior high.
February 18th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
To anyone defending this device please realize that this phone truly is very awkward and irritating to use. The build quality is horrible. The slide/flip out bit is flimsy. The fact that there is no 3.5 or even 2.5mm jack for audio is ridiculous. The lack of google branding or any decent set of software packages that really put this together as a complete device makes it feel like it was released to the public while still in early QA / Alpha stages of development. This phone should have never been released to the market and the fact that people are using it and claiming to like it are only in denial. You blew 179$ on a worthless phone that makes doing even the simplest task take twice as long.
Case in point. This may have more features than many current T-Mobile US handsets however that does not make it better. I would take a basic Nokia over this pile of crap any day. This phone does not hold a match to the iPhone in any sense of the imagination and if Google has any plans on ever marketing a phone as a “Google Phone” they had better hope people forget all about this phone. The HTC G1 “Google Phone” is to mobile devices as is Coke 2 or Crystal pepsi is to soft drinks. “Epic Fail”
June 4th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
the g1 does record video now. sorry iphone loser. ever heard of the hero rom? why are iphones still waiting for an update to send pic messages?lol i guess we have to lack appearance for performance. so go pay $30+20 for internet and u/l text and leave g1 alone we don’t need retards owning one.