Is Anyone Buying T-Mobile's Googlephone?

Hugh Pickens writes "Laura Holson writes in the NY Times that she 'wandered down to the T-Mobile store at Ninth Ave. and 43rd St. in New York City to see what kind of crowds — if any — were lining up to buy the new T-Mobile G1 which went on sale Wednesday' and saw no lines out the door, no crowding at the counter, and a complete lack of crowds. The iPhone appears to still be the gold standard and Etan Horowitz writes that the G1 'doesn't do a great job showcasing its potential. It isn't as intuitive as the iPhone, and it may take average users a while to figure out basic and advanced shortcuts and features' and 'may appeal more to techies who value open-source products and don't mind a somewhat steep learning curve.' Part of the reason for slow interest may also be that T-Mobile's 3G high-speed data network won't be up and running in many cities until the end of the year."

Comments

I was an iPhone user

[atari2600]

Pros of the G1:

1. Usable QWERTY keyboard - texting heaven
2. 3G speeds in my area are ~900kbps
3. The browser feels faster
4. I can upgrade/replace the battery
5. I can put in an 2/4/8/16 gig micro SD
6. Speaker sounds louder
7. Free wifi at T-mobile hotspots
8. Voice activated dialing works decently
9. It's from T-Mobile and I don't have to deal with the evil pricks that are ATT/Cingular (was an ATT customer for almost 7 years)

Cons:

1. The battery life sucks at the moment
2. Dearth of apps (naturally)
3. The phone gets warm after a few minutes of usage
4. Not a con for me but no stereo bluetooth
5. Complete lack of accessories from T-mobile
6. Gmail goes down, you might have issues from the tight integration (forgot pattern to unlock phone? input your gmail info)
7. The phone has a cheap plastic feel and doesn't feel as solid as the iphone (especially when opening the back panel).
8. 3G coverage is spotty

Both weigh and measure about the same (comparison with a first gen iphone). Both are quad-band.

Re:Because they're not Apple

[vivin]

Maybe it's also because instead of buying it from the store a lot of people bought it online?

In fact take a look at this, where G1's were sold out when T-Mobile let people order it online.

I ordered one from T-Mobile, and a lot of my friends have as well. Granted, we're developers, but now that my other non-developer/non-geek friends and family have seen my phone, they want to get one as well.

And honestly, I don't even know where this guy came up with the "steep learning curve" and the "basic and advanced features". People I gave the phone to play with didn't seem to have a hard time figuring out how to get around. It's not like you need to be a rocket scientist to figure stuff out. Yeah, it's geared to the developer community but that's only reflected in the openness of the OS and the SDK, and not the phone or the interface itself. It's not like you don't need to drop into the commandline to work this phone.

I also think that instead of relying on hype and drooling at the mouth fanboys, Google is just relying on people buying the phone, using it, and talking to their friends and family about it.