Android - why art thou?

Instead of writing a yay-or-nay post about Android, I decided to start a series of posts about it. Now that I finally can talk about it.

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 much in a while. (Not sure how long). The reason many people see the G1 as ugly and old-fashioned is simply… because it IS! It’s a design unchanged for a while (it’s now available in Zune-brown along with white and black). The hardware itself though went through many iterations I am sure, as it’s top-notch (3G on AWS, GPS, 3MP autofocus camera etc.).

Let me emphasize that this is just my personal opinion about the device on my personal blog. None of these are Google’s, T-Mobile’s (my previous employers) nor MySpace’s opinions.

To my friends and colleagues at Google though, I would like to wish congratulations for launch. It’s been a long-time coming!

Stay tuned for more.

Update: Geez - I should have prefaced my comments more with what I had in mind. I did NOT want to criticize the hardware nor the Android OS itself which in fact you will see I am quite a fan of in my next posts. In terms of LOOKS, compared to other HTC devices (such as the Touch or Touch HD) and competitive devices, such as the iPhone I believe the look of the G1 Hardware is somewhat…well…dated.

I am being portrayed as the disgruntled-ex-googler who wants to bring the hard work of my old employer down. Which is far from being the case. It has nothing to do with my being an ex-Googler, nor a MySpacer now nor did and do I not value the efforts of hundreds of my former colleagues. I just don’t like the design/looks of the device, which I doubt is even Google’s work. I think the team did an awesome job over the last few years building a whole new platform from the ground up.

I realize that product cycles take many years and I realize that future Android devices will certainly come in more interesting form factors. Again - I wish the whole team that worked hard on this best of luck.