Mobile Phone Blog:

(Note: all views expressed are SOLELY those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Mobileshop.com)

You may have noticed that yesterday, I did a list of the big touchscreen mobile phones due out before Christmas, in the Blackberry Storm story. You may also have noticed that I conspicuously left one very big upcoming mobile phone out of that list. Well, there’s a very good reason for that…

It’s the T Mobile G1, it’s the first mobile phone that’s powered by Google Android, and given the amount of interest it’s getting, it easily deserved a post all to itself.

However, you may have noticed that this particular post about it isn’t in ‘Mobile Phone News’, but in ‘Editorial Opinions’. And that’s because there were some pretty bold claims made in the launch event yesterday, not least of which being that the T Mobile G1 will change forever the world of mobile phones.

That, right there, is a claim practically begging to be dissected, to answer the question it instantly poses: when you get right down to it, is the T Mobile G1 really going to change the world of mobile phones that much? Is it really that good a mobile phone?

Let’s find out, shall we?

Under the microscope – the T Mobile G1 examined

The launch event for the T Mobile G1 answered a lot of questions that have been on a lot of lips, ever since Google Android was first announced. What would it look like, how would it work, would it be able to take on the iPhone… well, the list goes on, but you get the gist. So we can understand it properly, what exactly does the T Mobile G1 do, and what spec is it?

In terms of hardware, what we’ve got here is a mobile phone built by HTC, veterans of the touchscreen phone market. It comes complete with a full QWERTY keyboard hidden under the sliding screen, HSDPA at up to 7.2 Mbps, WiFi, a 3 megapixel camera and GPS. However, hardware specs are only half the story with T Mobile G1, because what it’s really selling on, what’s really unique about it, is the operating system: Google Android.

It’s the first mobile phone to use it, and it’s this bit of the T Mobile G1 that people are talking about, not least Google themselves. They’ve said that the fully open source nature of it will change the world of mobile phones forever, giving people the freedom to create and get hold of absolutely any software applications that they want, and that developers can dream up. It also includes things like tight integration between contacts, Gmail, Gtalk and so on.

Oh, and since one of the key targets the T Mobile G1 is aiming at is (let’s be honest, here) the iPhone, it also includes facilities to download music and extra software. For the software, you get Android Marketplace, where you can, literally, download any software that people have taken the time to dream up and write. On the music front, you get the Amazon MP3 Store, which, to its credit, lets you choose from about 6 million tracks, all of which are DRM-free.

So, everything’s looking rosy, right?

Well, not entirely…

Google – taking over the world, one phone at a time?

Here’s where it gets a bit sticky, you see, since the T Mobile G1 leaves out some very crucial bits that other mobile phones include as standard (very much like the iPhone in that respect, then). Things like being able to record video, and even watch videos that aren’t on Youtube. Or being able to use other email accounts that aren’t Gmail. Or that fact you can’t link it up to sync it with your PC, but have to do it through Google Apps.

Oh sure, developers can write extra software to do all that, but I can’t help but think it’s criminal that the T Mobile G1 doesn’t do it straight out of the box, when so many other mobile phones do, plus, of course, it needs to really take off, or developers probably won’t bother writing apps for it.

That’s not the only thing I don’t like about the T Mobile G1, though. The other bit is entirely more insidious, and it has to do with the name plastered all over the phone itself.

Google.

It’s pretty much common knowledge at this point that Google have a very simple approach to things like your search data, and info in your emails, if you use Gmail. They want it, they want to know as much as possible, so they can sell advertising. And that’s what you’re getting with the T Mobile G1, a device with an operating system that seems intent on only letting you use features out of the box that benefit them. Hence the embedded Google search, Gmail, Google Apps and so on. Everything about it seems to be designed to reduce you to a series of bullet point, detailing your browsing habits, the videos you find funny, and so on. Oh, and given that you have to sync everything through the Cloud (and oh, how I hate the term ‘cloud computing’), they could feasibly have access to everything, with the T Mobile G1, to better serve you with adverts, presumably.

Of course, it’s always possible I’m just paranoid about my information!

So, bearing all that in mind, you’d probably be thinking I don’t like the T Mobile G1. You’d probably be thinking that my answer to the question in this blog post’s title is a big, fat no.

You’d be wrong.

T Mobile G1 – changing the world, just not how you think

You see, I do think the T Mobile G1 is an important mobile phone, even though I don’t personally like it. I’m not particularly mad keen on the design, I don’t find it particularly pretty, and I really don’t like the way that Google could use it harvest data.

The reason why I think it’s crucial that it’s been released is because of the effect it’s had, and is going to have on other mobile phones (much the same as the iPhone kicked off the current boom in touchscreen phones).

Take, for example, the commitment to making sure Android, and in turn the T Mobile G1 itself, is open source. Then consider the fact that the Symbian Foundation is heading down the same route, and that Symbian (especially with Nokia at the helm), have masses upon masses of experience in the mobile phone market. It’s not proven, but it’s pretty likely that Google Android kicked off that development into the Symbian Foundation, and as I’ve said, that is going to be the most important alliance in the history of mobile phones, in my opinion. It wouldn’t have happened at all, I don’t reckon, if it weren’t for Google Android and the T Mobile G1.

So, the future is, actually, looking quite rosy, but not because of the T Mobile G1 on its own, but much more because of the huge effect it’s going to have on other mobile phone makers. Apple are pushing hardware frontiers with the iPhone, Google are pushing software frontiers with Android and the T Mobile G1… and I reckon the massive kick up the backside that those two big names have given the old school mobile manufacturers is a good thing.

That being the case, we’re assured of one thing: in the future, we’re going to be seeing some frighteningly powerful and amazing mobile phones come out because of it, future Google Android mobile phones included, because let’s not forget, neither Windows Mobile or Apple got it absolutely right on the first attempt, and look at them now!

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