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📄 Contents

␡
  1. What Is Android?
  2. Examining the HTC Dream: The First Google Phone
  3. The Bottom Line
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This chapter is from the book

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Examining the HTC Dream: The First Google Phone

Several manufacturers, including Samsung and LG Electronics, are said to be developing phones based on the Android platform, and numerous carriers, including T-Mobile and Sprint, are supporting the platform for their cellular networks. That said, the first Android phone on the market is likely to be the Dream, manufactured by HTC and offered for sale by T-Mobile.

What is the HTC Dream? It’s an iPhone-like smartphone, complete with touchscreen input and the capability to run a variety of custom applications. Look for these features on the final shipping unit:

  • Large touchscreen with haptic feedback—that is, a tactile response when you touch a control on the screen.
  • Slide-out design that reveals a full QWERTY keyboard under the touchscreen.

  • Icon-based interface, like the one shown in Figure 37.1.

    Figure 37.1

    Figure 37.1 A preview of the Android phone home screen.

  • Capability to enhance functionality by downloading custom applications.
  • Internet connectivity with built-in web browser.
  • 3G data network support.
  • 3 megapixel digital camera.
  • iPhone-like dimensions of 3” wide by 5” long.

In other words, the HTC Dream, powered by the Android platform, will be a head-to-head competitor with Apple’s iPhone 3G. And you can expect it to come pre-loaded with a suite of Google’s web-based applications, including Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar, and Google Docs.

NOTE

I’m writing about the Dream in September 2008, and details are predictably scarce. By the time you read this chapter, however, the Dream will be on sale and you’ll know exactly what it is and what it does.

Commentary: Why Android?

Given Google’s history of Internet-based services for computer users, why is it diving head-first into the mobile phone market? After all, unlike Apple, Google has no intentions of making money from selling phones or sharing the revenue from cellular phone service.

No, Google isn’t interested in hardware or service plans. It’s interested, as always, in advertising. And Google believes that the market for mobile phone advertising will be even bigger than the market for Internet advertising in which it currently competes.

Remember, Google gives away its applications, both on the computer and for mobile phones. What it makes money on is selling the advertising that surrounds these applications, whether we’re talking ads on search results pages, email messages, maps, or whatever. If Google can serve up the screen, it can serve up an advertisement on that screen.

And we’re talking about a lot of mobile phone screens. The global mobile phone market consists of more than 2 billion users, which presents a lot of opportunities to serve up ads on those users’ phones. That is why Google is aggressively pursuing the Android platform; it wants to ensure an open platform for its mobile apps and services—and its very profitable advertising.

As Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in an interview, “We can make more money on mobile than we do on the desktop, eventually.” That’s what it’s all about.

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