The Android phone is here! So what?

Why don't you rename your

Why don't you rename your "article" for what it is, a commercial for the iPhone.

Uh.... oh, this was about your Iphone boyfest... got it...

I clicked on this to read about the gphone.... but instead I heard all about how great the APPLE Iphone is.... Thanks for the laughs. Sure I like Apples ideas, unfortunaetly the Iphone lacks a lot that the G1 and other future (android) phones will offer.... even without the hardware iporovments. The underlying OS is by far superior, since.... wow.... uh someone else BESIDES GOOGLE can actually write software.... so go on and be the apple fanboy you obviously are and stick with your communism protected phone... and Ill go with my open soure systems like I always have.... have a great day... Kiss your phone for me! haha :P

I am looking for a commercially-available Linux phone myself

I beg to differ against your article regarding measuring the features of a phone by its OS. You may notice that there are very few Linux-based phone managers around that can store/backup your phone contacts. I'm hoping that with the help of the open-source standards that the Android OS boasts, there are bound to be a Linux-based phone managers in development - thanks to an operating system that houses a Linux-based OS.

And that helps in keeping you from rebooting back to a Windows-based OS just to sync with your phone.

I think you're better off

I think you're better off writing jokes in the newspaper, you contridict yourself alot in your post such as...."No, people love the iPhone because of the phone's own innovative physical design" , this conflicts with what you said here "But, come on, who buys a phone for its operating system? "... you obviously dont know anything about operating systems or any kind of software, the operating system makes the physical features that people enjoy about the phones (safari and chrome, touchscreens and flash drives), so how is that not the operating system? youre better off writing comparisons about candy or television programs because you dont seem to know anything how technology or software really works...and youre dumb because hackers dont use macs , they use linux , and who would give them more attention apple or google? you shouldve wrote a article about how the iphone 1 and 3g have barely changed at all, and how when so many more deveopers are deving for the adroid are calling for better hardware'd phones , how much time does the iphone have left against big bad google , APPLE SUCKS and my opinion is youre getting too old for the times , life's passing you by and your still stuck writing about 1995, times are changing fast and it doesnt seem like you can fortell whats going to happen next, google will destroy apple, but you're so much more pro-apple like all the other sheep in this society that just buy the iphone because the media told them to, you dont understand , see , or pay attention to the innerworkings of things and new trends to come, blogging about technology is a little hard for dinosaurs

define innovative physical design

That Prada LG won some design prize before the Iphone was out and touchscreen were available.
Innovators usually fail. See Apples Newton.
Winners wait for first gen failures and improve on them. Mp3 players, touchscreen phones, etc.
Watch when Apple comes out with a Touchscreen Imac, people are going to claim innovation when HP has had the the unsuccessful Touchsmart out before.
Popularizing something is not innovating.

Android is cool because its sorta open source but If you look here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone
Linux has already 7.3% Market Share Sales (Apple's single phone has 2.8%) and PalmOS which uses Linux has 2.3%.
And dont forget the big, big player, Symbian which owns 57% has decided to go open as well. Considering that Nokia also owns Trolltech (QT4), I dont see how the open source hammer will work against this pre-emptive move.

The Iphone is an interesting piece of hardware (I still prefer the true functioality of my N95) adn will make itself some nice cash but just like in computers, it will never be able to reach much higher % of the smartphone or cell phone market.
Is it at surprise that the smartphone with 2.8% has its epicentre of popularity where the english tech media is situated?

I like Porsche's too.
Same principle.

Platform

I liked your article, but I disagree with your point that people won't buy a phone for its OS. Let me explain: I've been a Verizon customer for 10 years, dating back to the Ameritech days. I stick with them because of their customer service. I currently have the Voyager, the phone that was supposed to compete with the iPhone (it doesn't).

Now I like the phone but I hate the operating system. I hate Verizon's closed system so much, that I will probably switch to a company with an open OS when my plan runs out. I don't like their web browser, and the fact that it doesn't support Java or Flash and I can't do a thing about it. I'd like the iPhone, but I hate At&t with a passion. I guess that leaves the Google phone and t-mobile.

Webkit phone

"Earlier phones, which used WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), simply never caught people's attention. With the new screen sizes and the WebKit Web browser engine..."

WAP? Please... I have used a phone with a decent Webkit based browser and a 352×416 screen for over two years now. Nothing new.

A bit surprised you wrote this column

Stephen,

I followed your columns and I know you do get what a free solution is.

The G1 is exciting be cause is FOSS based, not because is linux. I anticipate myriads of applications being developed for android as we discuss this. Being open those application will rapidly progress to be top notch. No propietary platform can equal the power of "peer based production" as Yochai Benkler explains it.

Best Regards

Ramiro