There’s rampant speculation that Google is going to get in on the cell phone business. “Wow!” you say. “How much?” Well, it’d be free. Free phone…free service.
I’ll let you mop up the puddle you created.
Yeah, free.
Let the discussionbegin.
When they win the spectrum auction, then we’ll talk…
They’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars internally to produce some of the prototypes. They’re in cahoots with Microsoft, Intel, and other big tech firms to open up that range of the spectrum. They didn’t go through the trouble and expense to not win or not get into that pie.
They’re shopping around prototypes, so I’d say they’re going to make the leap.
The important thing is that the spectrum is going to be open access, so none of this crap about buying a phone and being tied to a single carrier.
They talked to Verizon, but Verizon wanted a lot of the ad revenue. Google talked to T-Mobile. They were more than happy to play.
It could end up as a “join us or get crushed” scenario. How do you beat “free”?
I dunno, but ever since I read your thread title I’ve had this stuck in my head.
Oh, ebaum. When will you cease and desist putting your charming logo on others’ work?
I dunno - I don’t like the idea of an ad-driven phone. If free internet access is any example, I think I’d rather pay for the service, thank you. Now, if it creates pricing pressure on the other carriers, and forces them to lower they’re pricing, I’m all for it.
I think a better example would be anything Google.
I don’t even know that this phone has and I’m already more interested in it than the iPhone.
I was not actually interested in the iPhone at all. I like Mac products, but it was a little too expensive. The fact that this Google phone would keep all the information on the web (your gmail account - for example) instead of in the phone makes it rather appealing (this is from the link in the OP under “begin”). I would also be up for free service. I’ve had free gmail for quite some time and never had a problem.
Brendon Small
The T-mobile deal is far more revolutionary than the iPhone: adding wifi hotspots to your cell’s capability and giving you a free wireless hotspot at home in one blow lets consumers dump their landlines if they live in a small enough space (saving them money), reduces strain on T-mobiles sub-par network (saving T-mobile money) while extending its range (covering their weak spot), and lets you call from any wifi place including your home for free (saving you money again).
Of course, a truly “free” phone could beat that deal out, but it all depends on the service coverage.
Originally, the title of this thread was “Ring, Ring, Ring Google Phone!”
I changed it at the last second.
What’s Google done that’s so great?
Search engine? I liked AltaVista better.
Email - Ho Hum
Calendars - ditto
Google Earth - cool, but Terraserver was first.
Really - what have they done from a user’s perspective that’s so revolutionary? (I’ll grant that there search engine backend is good).
I’m pretty sure you’re in a minority regarding all of those.
**Search Engine? ** Simply unmatched in speed, ease of use, and search accuracy – plus it can actually find the images I want. It’s simply brilliant in every possible way. Does Altavista deliver a forecast simply by typing “south San Francisco weather”? No, it does not. And that’s just one of many things most non-Google search engines can’t do. Oh, and iGoogle is totally sweet – a completely customizable Google start page that’s easy to use. Hell, you can even put video games on it!
Gmail? How anyone could refer to this as “ho hum” is beyond my comprehension. It offers a ridiculous amount of space which was unmatched at its time of arrival (though they have been beat in this area since, but their features more than compensate). The inclusion of Gtalk inside the GMail client is a stroke of genius. This, combined with their fabulous search engine makes finding email easier than any other provider I’ve found.
**Calendars ** - Haven’t really used them; never really considered this a key feature of Google.
**Google Earth **? What kind of argument is “Terraserver did it first”? The model-T was also the first automobile to really become popular; does that render every car post 1908 irrelevent?
Now for some items you conspicuously left out:
Google Maps? Fucking bloody fantastic. The maps themselves load fast, and between the Hybrid and now Street View (city dependent) options, I can see exactly where I want to go before I even leave my house. The service is fast, and the driving instructions make more sense than some competitors.
Google Desktop? I can only guess you haven’t tried this majestic program since you left it off your list. It’s a search engine for your computer that actually works, seamlessly. Type in a file and it actually finds it, near instanteously too.
Google Talk? This actually isn’t the most feature-heavy IM program around, but I did its integration with Gmail, minimalistic appearance, ease of use, and auto chat log saving searchable via Gmail. It does exactly what it should do, just easier and better than AIM and MSN.
The Google search engine is good, and I use it, but it’s not revolutionary IMHO, and I actually am starting to find their ad-driven placement to be really annoying.
Gmail - so what. It’s just like all the other free email services. So they offer more storage - big deal. Storage is getting cheaper by the minute.
Google Earth is Cool, like I said, but it doesn’t seem to offer anything very useful for the average user.
Google Maps - They’re OK, but not any better than any of the other mapping systems. And they’re not useful if you’re on the road (away from the 'net).
Google Desktop - I use Spotlight, built-in to OS X for 2 years, so this has no benefit for me.
Google Talk - I’m not much of an IM user, but I use a program called Adium, which works across all the IM services.
What made Google’s search engine so revolutionary when it first came out, was not the results it generated, but the fact that it only had two buttons. No shit. That’s it. Personally, I miss the hotbot engine of the pre-Google era. I was really able to drill down with that, in ways I’ve not been able to duplicate with Google’s.
The revolutionary things they’ve done have since been duplicated by competing services. Gmail may seem ho-hum now, but 2gig and attachments over 10MB were something shocking and unprecedented 2 years back. Google maps is brilliant, I don’t care what anyone says. One day, I was sitting there bitching at it for giving me a route I knew would be longer, and I said, “why the hell can’t I just drag the line over the route I want!”
I did. It worked. There was a recent update implementing this feature. What has google done that’s so great?
Read my mind.
Apart from that, they’re not perfect. Google video is dull and google products could really use some attention.
Well, in the vein of Google products, Google Earth is fun, as is Sketch-Up.
That’s big fun to tinker with, the latter one there.
I take it, Beowulf, you haven’t actually used GMail? The mere addition of “conversation-style” threading to email exchanges–grouping replies together so you can see a back-and-forth discussion all on one page–was revolutionary and worth switching for by itself. I hate having to use Lotus Notes at work, where you don’t have that, nor can you search within the body of your emails like you can with GMail.
I have a Gmail account, along with a Yahoo mail account, and a Hotmail account, and my regular ISP email account, with the same address I’ve had for 15 years. But I use Mail in OS X mostly, which has a “threading” capability that I use occasionally. Maybe I’m just not a “power” email user, because Mail seems to do everything I need.
I’m not anti-Google. Google search is my “home” page. I just think that there is an awful lot of anticipation over this product, which is from a company who has never made a hardware device before. Also, I just can’t see this being free. If you (generously) assume that my current phone bill is 50% profit, that means that Google will have to generate $35 worth of ad revenue from my phone every month. That just doesn’t seem realistic.
BTW, I have an iPhone, and while it’s not perfect, it is a great phone. Which is another point - Apple will have a two-year lead on Google, so I think they are going to have to really knock one out of the park to make it work.