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Comment by tjogin | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure the original goalpost was at "nowhere in the world will even one single line be formed of people wanting to buy an Android phone".

I think it was at "people won't line up for an Android phone", which is a more general statement, which is still true. He's talking about things that tend to happen, not claiming that it will never EVER EVER EVER happen even ONCE.

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Nobody's putting words into Gruber's mouth, he said "there will never be an Android phone that people line up for like they did for Windows 95". Taking it down a notch from there he meant "there will never be an Android phone that people feel extremely passionate about".

He's wrong on both counts already.

Which Android phone is people extremely passionate about?

I'm quite passionate about Android the platform. I love my incredible.

People lined up outside my local Sprint store to get the Evo 4G, but it was nowhere near what you would see at an Apple or AT&T store on iPhone release day. It's hard to measure passion for Android phones because on one hand there is the hardware, and the other is the Android platform. Aside from the Evo with a front-facing camera and 4G, or the Moment with a slide out keyboard, or the Droidx with a 4.5" screen, and a few other stand-outs, most Android phones are pretty vanilla hardware-wise. Android as a platform is great because it is free and open source, and has a lot of apps, but it is rough around the edges compared to iOS. It is easy to see why people are passionate about iPhone, because the hardware is amazing and the OS is polished. I love my Evo 4G, but I wouldn't love other Android phones like the Hero that are just generic Android phones.

That's because there are more Radioshack and Best Buys in a city than there are iPhones. I am pretty sure The Evo sold out for several day after launch.

Back when Windows95 was introduced, people around the world lined up in front of their local stores.

The Engadget story is about a line at one store, in one place in the world.

So no, this doesn't qualify as "an Android phone that people line up for like they did for Windows95".

Yep, but you cannot argue with pedants.

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