How many Google and HTC engineers does it take to build an Android phone? We don't have the punchline to that one, exactly -- but at least we have a pretty good idea of how long it takes. HTC's Chief Marketing Officer has revealed that it kicked off negotiations with Google some five years ago -- before it had even
acquired Android, interestingly -- and has been deeply embedded in the Android team for the past three years. That's a long frickin' time, but we figure the first model's probably ten times harder to throw together than its successors are, so hopefully we'll see a nice cadence of "HTC Innovation" from here on out. We know it's been said many times before, but it probably bears repeating:
Touch Pro and
Touch HD with Android, guys. Please.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
bbrim @ Sep 25th 2008 2:52PM
i second that! Actually Touch HD first please!
ToddPH @ Sep 25th 2008 3:28PM
Maybe they should have spent just a few months more on DESIGN!
yaniv.chokron @ Sep 29th 2008 8:31AM
What are you talking about?? Design? The phone is extremely functional. Lets seee..... ummm gimme a nice looking screen or even better and HD SCREEN ....., a beveled battery cover, a slick GUI, an OS that has to be restarted 5 times a day. An interface that gets stuck with every other swipe???? Come on.... the G1 is the plain jane by day...... she devil lover by night YA BABY! Ill take that ANY DAY.
TareX @ Sep 25th 2008 3:42PM
3 years ago HTC wasn't as flashy as it was now. That explains a lot about the looks of this phone.
It also supports the ex-Google Mobile product manager's words:
"It’s funny - but the first time I heard about Android was about 2.5 years ago, when Eric Schmidt told me about the device at Stanford after I got a job offer from Google (yet before I accepted it!). Since then I have seen many iterations of the software. The software. Not the device itself, because sadly it hasn’t changed in many years. The reason many people see the phone as ugly and old-fashioned is simply… because it IS! It’s a design unchanged for at least two years, without iterations on it besides color schemas (it’s now available in Zune-brown along with white and black) and the silly ‘with Google’ description on the back. Don’t ask me what ‘with Google’ means. I didn’t understand it back then and still don’t understand it today."
His Facebook status reads, “Ulf is disappointed but not surprised about the ‘G1′. Where’s the cheap data plan? Where do I plug in my headphones? No video player? How do I get contacts in it?”
http://blog.ulfw.com/2008/09/android-why-art-thou/
worldbfree4me @ Sep 25th 2008 9:43PM
@TareX
Standford student, Google employee please, "Google" came from the word "googol" which means 1 to the power of 100. So basically 1 with 100 zeroes after it. It's a BIG number get it!
Looks are in the eye of the beholder and no doubt, just like the Prius is not for everyone, this particular model is not either. As far as the software goes, its like a D.I.Y. Bare Bones PC build in which you decide what additional hardware and software rounds out the final spec. If you like a proprietary spec'd OS, you go with Windows, if not you go with Linux and the same rules apply with the G1 vs I phone. Want a Video Player, add one, want to upload your Contacts, get a Gmail account, and if you want to plug in earphones, use the supplied proprietary dongle. Early adopters will purchase this phone and by the end of the 1st quarter expect at least a half a dozen phones using the Android OS at which time Android will be on the minds of every other major Cell Phone manufacture.
"What the wise do in the beginning, fools do in the end"
Galen20K @ Sep 25th 2008 4:21PM
There are Two Other HTC Devices and a Windows Mobile phone coming out for
T-MObile in the Next 6 Months in addition to Two New model Blackberry phones,
aside from the KickStart also soon and All are supposed to Support the 3G
Network so they're JUst getting Started Now, FINAlly!!!
- D
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Rudolphe @ Sep 25th 2008 4:51PM
is android even as good as everyone's hyping it up?
henry @ Sep 25th 2008 7:41PM
wow three years and nobody thought to include a headphone jack? These guys need to let their designers go out and play outside more often.