25 September 2008

An Android has invaded US shores!
Symbian shudders?

I'm totally surprised no one's mentioned the HTC T-Mobile G1, the world's first Android OS powered phone, was announced yesterday to worldwide fanfare.

I must be totally honest, my Symbian Freaks. If someone creates a high end Android device with nice optics and powerful hardware and a higher resolution screen, I see no reason left to be loyal to S60 or Nokia.

The OS is fast and beautiful. The ideas behind the interface are equal parts iPhone slick and Windows XP functional. The application delivery methods are amazing, with the centralization of the Apple App Store, but the openness you expect from a Linux environment.

With the marketing power of Google, the global reputation of T-Mobile, and the US market's lust for smartphones with more power and simplicity, a synergy has been struck. Could this be the final death blow for Symbian, before it even gets the opportunity to unleash its own open source initiative?

The HTC T-Mobile G1 is a fearsome combination unseen in the tech world since the N95. It may lack the sexy optical hardware, but the OS definitely looks the part of a workhorse, and the interface is so self explanatory and intuitive, it should become a standard for mobile computing rather easily. Nokia may have publicly written off Android before, but I doubt the product managers are sitting idly, twiddling their thumbs today.

Fortunately, much like all of the latest devices from Nokia, the HTC G1 is far from the perfect device. Its as if HTC and Google have attempted to lock all of the doors, yet have left open a massive window. Before all of the smartphone functions and mobile web held so much importance, choosing the best device had alot to do with camera features and the quality of the optics.

Right now, the G1 is still in the Dark Ages of the image capture timeline. The camera can only capture still images, with no flash, and absolutely no native video capture capabilities. This has long been a Nokia Nseries smartphone stronghold, and an opportunity to prove Nokia as manufacturer and S60 as a platform can still combine to produce stunning devices.

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Unfortunately, Nokia's initial new S60 5th Edition device, like the G1, will be a low to midlevel device. It will feature a camera, but nothing high end or spectacular enough to attract the droves of flocking consumers.

Smartphone OS's are becoming similar enough in functionality, and users are ready for more dynamic interfaces to make those feautres more easily accessible.

The iPhone may have captured the minds of neophyte technophiles all over the globe, but the G1 will attract the true techies that weren't fooled or impressed by Apples all gloss/little substance method. No tricks or fancy marketing will be needed to sell this thing, though I'm sure they will anyway. Nokia has a hill to climb, and its growing by the minute.

Nokia must display its strengths in high quality hardware along with its OS. Nokia has the advantage of having exclusive rights to the Carl Zeiss optics. They must exercise this hardware advantage and release a compelling cameraphone to silence its critics. Now, not next year. My N-XT concept may have stemmed the bleeding in today's market, but Nokia has shown no interest in producing anything similar, and hasn't announced anything close to innovative in awhile. Nokia fanboys the world over are hoping for a grand rebuttal from the rumored device codenamed "Gadget", as am I, though with little confidence or expectation.

The smartphone world has definitley experience a Tectonic shift, and things can never be the same. But how different will they be?