The Nexus One: known by its friends as The Google Phone. Let me explain why I don’t get it.
It was hoped to be an iPhone killer. The first phone designed by engineers at Google. Something that would shake up the mobile phone industry. It wasn’t just a smartphone, it was a superphone. What happened? It’s designed and manufactured by HTC, it has no real killer features, and Google’s involvement seems to be that they provided the operating system and are selling it on their website.
The Nexus One was a let-down. There’s nothing new or groundbreaking there at all, save for the voice recognition, the media were wrong when they said that Google engineers designed the phone, and this new entry won’t shake up the industry one iota. Having an ad-supported cheap phone would have been the answer, as many people simply won’t pay £400 for something that they can buy for under £100, or get for free on a reasonably priced contract.
Let’s face it: we’re getting too many phones that are being touted by the media as being “iPhone killers” whereas in reality that just means “it has a touchscreen display”. Design elements are blindly copied from the iPhone, innovation seems to come solely from Steve Jobs and co, and we’re back to before 2007 when mobile phone manufacturers just stopped coming up with new ideas and churned out phones that simply looked good and had a 10 mega-pixel camera.
I might be a big Apple fan, but I’m also a big technology fan. If there was a phone as good as the iPhone I’d be all over it like a child in a sweet jar. I still think the Palm Pre is a great phone, I was happy to forgive the shortcomings because it innovated with its operating system and the designers copied the iPhone screaming “We can do better than that!”
But instead, the innovation we get from the Nexus One is that it’s only being sold online. I wouldn’t consider that innovation: I’d consider it a step back. Technology is meant to be felt. It’s meant to be used. It’s meant to be part of your everyday life and you’re supposed to enjoy using it.
So why can’t we try it out first?
Again, Apple has this right, and I’m pleased that so does o2. Retailers should not only be putting their products on display, but customers should be encouraged to try them out. The screensaver shouldn’t be password protected and the phones shouldn’t be demo models that don’t actually work. I care much more about how easy it is to use a device than I do how it looks tethered to a shelf. I want to be able to choose my purchase with confidence that I know how it works, and that I won’t be frustrated a month down the line when the menu system is awkward to use and it takes longer than it should to write a text message. But I have to deal with it, because it cost me £300.
A Google Phone in principle is a great idea. Google are full of great ideas and they’re always trying to make things better. But with the Nexus One, I think they’ve dropped the ball.