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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."
I pre-ordered my G1 and I love it. It's a marriage of a Blackberry and the iPhone and while it's true that there are some differences and a few quirks at first...you get over them real quick. It really is pretty easy to use.
I've started playing with the SDK too and they have it integrated nicely with Eclipse and it's really a very nice set up.
I'm a big fan.
I don't care how good the phone is. T-Mobile's coverage is too sparse to make it attractive.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
I won't be buying one, because any phone from T-Mobile is no longer in the running for me. They are my current provider, but (unlike every other provider) their service area near me has been shrinking rather than growing. Places I had service last year are now consistently "emergency call only" areas. We're talking about a good quarter of the state. On top of that, they had the nerve to send me advertising text messages telling me how they've expanded their coverage. I am currently contract free, so if another provider comes out with a good Android phone, I'll look into it, but who cares how good it is if it has no service.
Battery life doesn't seem to be stellar, but the great aps and easy installation make up for it.
Love the smooth keyboard -- which includes a number bar!
The integrated GPS is kick ass.
The only downside is that the network is a little spotty -- but I knew that when I got it.
Prior to the G1, the only options were to continue pining for an Iphone to replace my Blackberry or pay the termination fee with my existing carrier and then switch. Now I'm glad I made the switch and didn't blow the money on terminating my existing T-mobile service.
Google didn't hype the G1 for months, unlike Apple. And, Google didn't have a launching pad product, aka the iPod.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
I'd say this is pretty good: http://www.iphonestalk.com/googles-android-based-phone-pre-orders-hit-15-million-should-the-iphone-be-afraid/ I think it took Apple much longer to sell 1 million of the first gen iPhones
I thought Walt Mossberg was pretty positive about it, and the gyst was that this really is a handheld computer. I have neither a G1 nor an iPhone, but I'm watching them closely. I'm a math teacher, and I would love to have a handheld Wifi-equipped computer to just slide under an overhead projector and demo stuff to my students. (Yeah, as if they don't all already have iPhones! Actually, only a few do.) The G1 lacks enough storage for me, but the data plan is more attractive. The iPhone has the storage but the data plan is a potential nightmare. Maybe an iPod Touch... Anyway, I'd expect the G1 and iPhone to converge in terms of features and data plans over the next few releases.
At any rate, I love seeing real competition in this space, AND neither is Microsoft. I expect the success of the iPhone and G1 to show my students and colleagues that there are alternatives to Windows.
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
A buddy who works at T-Mobile (in corporate) confirmed that their first batch was already pre-sold before the release date. So you *could* line up to buy one but you'd be standing outside the store for a month. It seems that they actually underestimated demand; and exacerbated the problem by selling a big chunk to employees...
My point is that Holson is missing a lot of background information.
The G1 doesn't work as a phone. Why would people buy it? T-Mobile excluded UMA aka t-mobile at home from the G1, effectively making it a paperweight in most suburbs. Combine that with the unattractive price point and the fact that many people who would be interested in this device are currently shackled to the iPhone and you've got a product nobody can use or wants to buy.
I just talked to them to find out when mine is supposed to ship. Apparently the shipped out about 35,000 of them yesterday and almost 60,000 today.
That just came from a regular call center rep, but if it's true then they are making quite an impact given how little hype there is in the real world.
Checking around here, most dealer stores had their initial orders pre-sold, and I could have bought one yesterday at 5pm. But, they warned me, they epxected to sell out today. Company stores were different.
And just so you know, I think iPhone fanboyz and G-Phone freaks are different. I'll be buying a G-Phone, and I don't need to stand in line for three days, bring a solar-powered cappuchino machine, or have my picture taken for Gizmodo. There's a Starbucks next to the T-Mobile store, I have a day job and can't take the time off, don't need to be 'first', and hey, it is really just a FREEKIN PHONE, OK???
whew.
ps- I hope someone will make an SSH client for it. I could dig a real keyboard to compile a kernel while I'm in the car...
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.