WyzGuys Tech Talk

I am very interested in the gigantic Battle of the Smartphone Titans that has started between Apple (iPhone) and Google (Android).  This is a battle between exact opposites.  Apple is the epitome of a closed and tightly controlled development environment.  Google is completely open-source.  Apple manufactures their own handsets, Google lets anyone write to any handset.  Apple applications developers need to be approved to get into the AppStore, anyone can write applications for Android enabled smartphones.

The iPhone got the jump start, and went up against the reasonably weak and uninspiring competition that was at that time provide by RIM Blackberry devices, and the half-hearted offerings of Microsoft on the Windows Mobile platform.

Not to ignore RIM (Blackberry), Palm (Pre), or Microsoft (Windows Mobile).  These companies straddle the line that divides Apple and Google.  Palm, after years of indecisive marketing moves and declining sales, may have a comeback product in the Pre, which is available through Sprint, the weakest of the major mobile carriers.  What they need to do is finally surrender to the inevitable, abandon the Palm OS, and port the Pre to Android.

Windows Mobile has an advantage that comes of being part of the Galactic Empire that is Microsoft.  This is also is biggest drawback, since it is just one in a galactic collection of products, and not a major one at that.  I never see Windows Mobile attaining a dominant market position, but I don’t see them going anywhere soon either. 

And finally Blackberry, which seems to me to be heading down the same path that Palm went down, with the same bleak outlook.  Blackberry became the darling of connected executives everywhere, usurping the Palm in the market it had pioneered for the PDA (Personal Digital Assistant).  I finally acquired a Blackberry, my first, in April of this year, and have service through T-Mobile.  My son purchased the first Android phone, the G1 at the same time.  I have to say the Blackberry is a poor competitor to the G1.  The applications that are available are rudimentary in comparison to what is already available for Android phones, and a joke compared to the extensive collection of apps available for the iPhone.  Web browsing is tediously slow and very low quality.  The email thing works ok, but I get so many emails that I quit sending all but a few to the phone.  Blackberry is going to need to step up to the application issue in a real way, or will find themselves losing their corporate customers to Android.  If corporate IT shops begin to embrace Android, I would say the party is over for Blackberry.

All things said – my money is on Google.  The Android enabled phones I have seen are just incredibly cool, plus users have the choice in price, feature set, and mobile carrier that you can’t get from the Apple/ATT alliance.  Need a physical keyboard?  It’s Android.  Want Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile?  It’s Android again.  Plus as the Linux world has shown us, you can get a lot more development accomplished in an open-source environment, than you can is a closed source world.  My next phone will be an Android phone.