Developers for Android currently have a number of challenges writing their code for a device that they can’t yet buy.
An example is testing the accelerometer on the device. There are apps out there to model tipping the device and developers have also come up with some ingenious ways of simulating this. One such example is linking up a Wiimote to their laptop whilst running the Android emulator (below).
It will be interesting to see how many European developers are willing to pay a monthly contract to T-Mobile in the UK just so they can see how their code runs on a real device. I suspect many will wait until they can purchase one outright without a contract.
It begs the question: will be a cheaper ‘iPod Touch’ type device coming out with Android within the next year? I would have thought a device with no phone would be ideal for developers as well as people who plan to use a separate phone. Users could run over wifi without being tied in to a contract. It would also enable developers to test more freely how their software runs on a device without a monthly overhead.
Reports have already stated that it will be free with £40 a month tariffs. It will be interesting to see if their are lower tariffs offered, what you’ll pay for the phone with those or whether there are any contracts offered shorter than 18 months.
Below are the O2 UK tariffs for pay monthly customers on the iPhone for comparison. I’d guess that, like the $179 price tag for the G1 in the US, T-Mo are going to try to pitch the G1just a bit cheaper than these prices…
O2 Pay Monthly Tariffs for iPhone
Choose from one of our four Pay Monthly tariffs for iPhone.
Monthly Charge
£30
£35
£45
£75
Cost of 8GB iPhone
£99
£99
Free
Free
Cost of 16GB iPhone
£159
£159
£59
Free
Minutes
75
600
1200
3000
Texts
125
500
500
500
Unlimited Data & Wi-Fi
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Visual Voicemail
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Reduced Roaming Rates
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Minimum contract length
18 months
18 months
18 months
18 months
As mentioned before, I wonder how soon before people will be unlocking these phones both from the US and the UK. I’d give it about 2 weeks from release.
Pictures of the T-Mobile G1 (official name for the HTC Dream) have appeared briefly on the T-Mobile site in anticipation of its preview / marketing launch tomorrow in New York. This has been reported in various articles but I first saw it here (mentioned more as a footnote).
[edited] The UK’s daily Telegraph is (again) on the bleeding edge in terms of revealing HTC’s plans for the Dream in Europe. Well, either that or they have again got confused between T-Mobile in the UK and the US.
They state again that it will be available exclusively to T-Mobile UK and on the shelves in November. However, the fact that they show the image below with the alt text as “The Google HTC Android phone” (it’s not, it’s the Touch HD) perhaps indicates they are not quite on the pulse.
Meanwhile the WSJ announced that HTC expects to ship more Dreams than most analysts reckon they are likely too. HTC apparently reckon they could ship up to 700,000 devices.
If it is true then I believe T-Mobile UK is a slightly unusual choice for launching the first Google phone. Sure, they were one of the first (excluding ’3′) to launch ‘all you can eat’ tarriffs but I question how much of Android’s target audience they can reach. T-Mobile must be hoping that users will move across to their network in order to get their hands on the first phones. However, I would speculate many will wait for unlocked phones to become available so they can stick with their current provider.
I hope that T-Mo don’t try to use the new phone as an excuse for extortionate monthly subscriptions and lengthy contracts. I have a feeling the first Google phone is going to get a tough ride in terms of comparisons to the iPhone, especially as the Dream looks very much like a rehash of the Sidekick. It would be unfortunate if it was further burdened by pricey contracts.
