The Android-powered G1 has been available in T-Mobile stores for a little while now and a lot has happened. A couple hundred people lined up in San Francisco for the black and bronze models, dubbed “extremely limited availability.”
From what I’ve seen on the net so far, I’m not crazy about the look of the UI, but Android is so customizeable that it shouldn’t be a concern for pro users. Also, it’s much better than older versions of the UI which turned out terribly.
Something I would really like to address is how the purchasing system on Android is becoming a little absurd. First, we heard reports about the Android Market and how it will revolutionize software due to the open source nature of it all. Then, we heard about carriers taking an interest and creating their own Android-based markets that will be preloaded on phones. At that point, I started to doubt the Android Market. Then, to top it all off, MobiHand announced they were developing an Android-based MobiHand store that will be available online.
So now we are at the point where we have carriers, Google and third party vendors all giving potentially separate prices and products for Android. What a mess. Compare this to the Apple App Store where we have 1 device, 1 store and everything available other than jailbreaking specific apps.
I’ll be keeping my eye on reports from people who own the G1 about the software purchasing system, but lets hope Google tames this wild beast and keeps content discovery easy and fast. The device costs $179.99 on a two-year contract.
[Via Engadget]
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