The Android platform has a problem and it’s not going to be that easy to solve. The issue is with the branding of the phone and how it’s going to be sold.
It looks like the new HTC phones from T-Mobile will have the Google logo on them. This is unusual and it kind of blurs the line in terms of is this a G Phone? or is it not really a G Phone because it’s just powered by something that Google backs and the phone isn’t made by Google?
People who know anything about this know the answer, it’s not a G Phone of course because there will be lots of other different phones using the Android platform made by different manufacturers all with different designs.
Don’t understand Android, do Understand the iPhone
I’m thinking about the rest of the population who haven’t been following news about Android and don’t know what the hell it is. There are lots of these people out there and they are potential customers of Android phones.
Android mobiles are competing with the iPhone, everyone knows the iPhone, it’s an identifiable brand, it’s had great publicity, it’s just simple.
People have bought into the feeling of having an iPhone, it’s a great product to sell to mass markets, it has visual appeal and usability, plus it’s generally cool to have one.
No Product to Identify With
Where Android is going to find it hard is that there is no identifiable product, there’s an operating system and that’s not so cool to many people.
Without a G Phone Android will find it hard to compete with the iPhone, in fact it shouldn’t try to compete at all, it needs to be marketed as something different. It needs to be branded as taking mobile development in a new exciting direction. Luckily Google has the brand to do that and that is what will be the difference in making this a success.
A Mix of Many Things
The HTC Dream Phone seems to be a bit of a mix, it has some of the features of the iPhone (the touchscreen), and some of the features of a Blackberry, (the keyboard being the feature I’m thinking about here). There are two ways of thinking about that. You could think critically and moan about the fact that the phone is neither one thing or the other and isn’t that innovative.
Or you could think another way and go with the theory that the phone has taken the best bits from other popular phones and added a great operating system to go with it. I personally go with that way of thinking.
The mobile phone operators definitely have a problem selling Android based phones but time will tell.
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