By Ali Ord - Sun, 06/21/2009 - 10:30 Has T-Mobile Blown It?
The iPhone comes out TOMORROW (6/19/2009)! But wait...when is the Google myTouch 3g releasing to public? Hype about the Google phone is virtually nonexistent. Is it T-Mobile’s marketing ineptitude? Is it some production delay? Have there been bureaucratic pitfalls? We have no idea, but while everyone is foaming at the mouth over the latest iteration of the iPhone, news on it’s Android competition is conspicuously hard to come by.
Did T-Mobile and Google miss the boat by not promoting a new Android? Your Thoughts?
So...my question is...When does this new Android device come out? we don’t really even know the name of the thing. MyTouch 3G, G3, gPhone, ION, HTC Magic... I mean really. Forget about the tech specs (which would also be nice to be able to talk about), we don’t even know what to call the damned thing.
While Google/T-Mobile are hiding little details, people are running as fast as they can to the next shiny object, which just so happens to be the iPhone 3Gs. I’m not saying Google’s new phone doesn't have a chance, but the way things are going, they aren’t even making Apple break a sweat.
Michael Martin, who maintains a Google-approved blog for Android called Google And Blog, talked with WebProNews about the upcoming Google phone. Michael likened the iPhone and gPhone to the Mac vs. PC conflict in the 1980's. When asked what he thinks Apple’s response will be to Google’s (what he calls) "ION", Michael says “we'll see what happens”. As for his predictions on consumer reaction to the Google phone vs. iPhone, he says; “there is a trash-bin not too far away, so if you have an iPhone you can put it in there and pick up an Android." Not that we have any idea WHEN we can pick one up - or even what to ask for... Just for the record, Michael Martin gave us more information about this mystery phone than T-Moblie has, so we actually owe him a thank you.
To me the most frustrating and baffling aspect of all of this is the fact that the HTC Magic (which will be renamed to ‘something’ in the USA) has already been out for weeks in Europe. The good news is, if you dig around hard enough, you can find specs and even some (mostly positive) reviews of the Google phone. So, all the more reason to wonder why most people in America have no idea about the thing.
Google is clearly motivated and highly interested in encouraging application development for Android. This was made clear a couple of weeks ago when they gave away a couple hundred of the new handsets at the I/O conference. Certainly that did some good insofar as generating some Buzz, but they (or maybe T-Mobile) have made little or no effort to engage consumers. They just let Apple have a free ride with the new iPhone without putting so much as a bug in the public ear about their competing product.
Would the announcement of a Google Phone have effected your decision to buy a new iPhone? Comment Below.
T-moblie has not done well (to put it mildly) with marketing their product and really needs to get the ball rolling if they expect the newest Android to compete on any level with iPhone. Understand, I find Google's up and coming phone very intriguing (from what i have seen), I just don’t think it’s ideal from a marketing standpoint that I have to look so hard for information about it.
