And so it starts...
I was lambasted by some git (anonymous coward) in a previous post for mentioning that it was going to be hard (though not impossible) for the Android to catch up with the iPhone.
And so it begins.
It amazes me that there are still people in the world that think R&D can be fast-tracked... that Google or Microsoft or HTC or Nokia or whoever can "skip over" the time and resource that, in this case, Apple have put into the iPhone.
Even Apple can't - and they went from NeXT to OS X via an aborted Copeland to prove it.
Coming up with good stuff takes time - debugging, refining, testing things for security and stability (as is the case here and as was, and still is, the case with the iPhone).
I'm really excited by the prospect of a really, really cool new phone to rival or even "beat" the iPhone - and there are great, stylish, easy to use handsets out there already.
But by taking the fight directly to the iPhone (proprietary OS and all - as Mage points out above) it means you're not trying to target a different market (ie folk who love to tinker with their toys at a low level or people who just want to make calls and can't be arsed with all the bells & whistles) but you're going after a, rapidly expanding, installed user-base who appreciates the whole iTunes end-to-end user experience, the silky interface and, yes, even the hype around Apple products. How many iPods have Apple sold to date..??
It's a tough gig - and anybody who thinks otherwise either has no idea of the history of computing... or a time machine.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
