Google have a strong pedigree of taking on other large players in a number of markets. Yahoo! and Altavista (and a host of others) and in search, Microsoft in software (and latterly, with its Chrome browser, in surfing the Web), and now Apple and its iPhone. Google’s gPhone is the latest in Google’s series of challenges to these established names. In the name of creating competition in marketplaces, we say long may this continue.
But is the gPhone – proper name the T Mobile G1 — really a competitor to the iPhone? Perhaps not. Just from the look of the thing and the feel of Google’s Android platform, the gPhone is aiming at a completely different market altogether. With the full QWERTY keyboard and a roller ball for control, the gPhone has a rather traditional feel. This, for better or for worse, is certainly not something that the iPhone can be accused of.
It is Google’s newly developed Android platform that is the real interest here, though. Android lets you use pretty much all the Google services including YouTube, Google Chat and Gmail on the gPhone without any problems. Of course with the QWERTY you can get down to communicating with your home boys and girls much easier.
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