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The myTouch, the successor to the T-Mobile G1, is one of a number of new or upcoming smartphones to take advantage of Google's Android platform. Here are five reasons why Android is changing the face of the smartphone market.
1. Android is More Personal
Google has done the impossible with Android, namely brought Web-search-like intelligence to the smartphone arena. Android is the Amazon.com of smartphones. It's all about personal preferences. Did you ever think you'd get a hold of a smartphone device that actually learns from a user's preferences and then makes suggestions? That's what the new Sherpa application does on Android.
Through behavior and user feedback, the application learns a person's likes and dislikes, prioritizing recommended retailers, restaurants and attractions.
Just like Amazon.com redefined the online shopping experience, Google is making the smartphone experience smarter with Android.
2. Android Provides An Open-Ended Experience
There is no more open-ended platform than Android. It has brought the Linux community phenomenon to the smartphone market. Google has taken what is the mind-numbing experience that is developing for Apple's iPhone and made it an open-ended joy. What a refreshing revelation to see a vendor actually make it easier for developers to bring innovative and imaginative applications to the market. Take note: providing an open-ended and engaging platform for developers and then making sure they had all the development tools and assistance they needed to be successful was how Microsoft beat Apple to a bloody pulp during the boom days of the PC market.
You can bet your life that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is sweating Android. He knows this open-ended formula beat him once, and Google could do it again with Android.
3. Android Is All About An All-Inclusive Consumer-To-Business Experience
The Apple iPhone may know consumers. But the Apple iPhone does not know business.
Android has brought a full-fledged consumer-to-business experience to the market. The lines have blurred between consumer and business information technology, and Google gets it. Apple doesn't. One example is Android's support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. Google may be battling Microsoft in the search engine market, but it has the smarts not to lock down its Android platform. Can Microsoft say the same thing for Windows Mobile?
The new T-Mobile myTouch 3G offers access to both personal and corporate e-mail and includes support for Microsoft Exchange, Gmail and most other POP3 and IMAP e-mail services, as well as synchronization with Google contacts and calendars. File this under seamlessly combining business and pleasure.
4. Android Means Faster Smartphone Releases
Google's development philosophy is that no piece of software is ever finished, and good enough is good enough. That means faster software releases. That means more rapid advancements in smartphone software.
T-Mobile released the original Android-based G1 last October and now only eight months later it has released what by all accounts is a big step up: the HTC-built T-Mobile myTouch 3G.
Look for the pace of new Android based smartphones to get faster and faster. That means big trouble for Apple, which just flat out takes a lot longer to bring new iPhone releases to the market.
5. It's The Software, Stupid
There's been a lot written about smartphone hardware -- like design, battery life and storage. But at the end of the day those are just the ante in the intensely competitive smartphone market. The real differentiator is software. Apple gets that. Google gets that. But Android has a leg up because of its more open-ended support for innovative and imaginative applications.
Jobs can crow all he wants that the new iPhone 3G S has sold 1 million units in its first three days. He says customers are voting and the iPhone is winning. That Jobs' boast is nothing more than a sign that he is worried sick about Google and Android. Look out, Steve. Google Android is set to rain on your iPhone parade.
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