Brennon Slattery in MacWorld offers an Apple-flavored look at the new G1, and finds that the new smartphone from HTC, T-Mobile and Google fails in at least 10 ways. While some of his points hold less water than others (T-Mobile recently rescinded its 1GB data cap), some hit the mark (no Exchange support). And it all just underscores that both the iPhone and the G1 are market changers that will fundamentally change the way people think about their cellphones.
Some key downsides to the G1, Slattery notes, include its lack of a multitouch interface (pioneered on the iPhone), skimpy storage (1GB, expandable to just 8GB) and lack of desktop synching and Exchange support. The latter is a big hit against the G1, especially since it means the phone is less likely to capitalize on its one feature that could leave the iPhone in the dust–it’s Qwerty keyboard. The G1 is far better suited to typing up e-mails vs. the iPhone’s clunky on-screen keyboard. While Google may have left Exchange out on purpose, the lack of Exchange support could leave business users looking elsewhere. Other hits, like the erroneous data cap mentioned above and the accelerometer quirk, which affects the G1 only in certain applications, are less notable. And some downsides mentioned, such as the lack of video recording, are non-starters, since they’re absent in the iPhone as well.
The upshot? Both the Apple iPhone and the Google G1 present a new range of possibilities for mobile computing. While neither is perfect, they’ve both got the foundation in place to provide users with unprecedented flexibility and capability while on the road. (And for a different slant on the two feature sets, check out Network World’s slideshow.) In the end, however, Google’s open source approach will probably result in more (and better) applications for phones based on its Android OS. Hardware is important (and the G1’s lack of a real headphone jack is disappointing), but the real battlefield is in the software.
