Watch Out! There's an Android Headed Our Way!!!!!

Okay, so it seems that Apple's iPhone has been all the rage.  Sleek, efficient, stylish, handy, the list of adjectives goes on and on.  But now, a potential competitor is being releases this fall (in The States), and around winter in the UK.  The Google Android G1, by T-Mobile.  This phone may not be the iPhone, but it does have some similar features, and some bonus stuff to boot.

"Android" is really a bunch of software tools from Google, for more on this, click here.  So, the Android has a touch screen, but when one wants to type, unlike with the iPhone, there is a full Qwerty keyboard, much like the one of the T-Mobile Sidekick, a 3 mega pixel camera, access to Google related applications (i.e. Gmail, Google Maps), and a "Android-Market" (basically the App Store.)

In comparison to the iPhone, this phone does not seem to offer such versatility.  However, my one criticism of the iPhone has always been the typing.  I've spent quite a bit of time on my mother's iPhone, as I wanted to see how the typing was.  I found that I made errors as often as not, and that having physical buttons is much simpler for me.  And this is the benefit of the Android: the Qwerty keyboard and a touch screen!

My prediction is that this phone will not do better on the market than the iPhone, nor do I foresee multi hour waits for the release of this phone.  But as it is geared more towards PC users, than those of Mac, this phone (if the email is compatible with company addresses) may have a future as the next Blackberry-a favorite among users of all kinds (and especially in the corporate world), or could just replace the Sidekick.

P.S.  BBC has the best information on the android