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Comment by oomkiller | Hacker News Reader

This article makes a pretty big assertion, that Android will be the most common platform in 2 years. I think that's a really naive prediction. First, it's going to take a LOT to knock Apple off of it's roost as 2nd most common platform, due to their ability to sell by making their products part of a culture. Second, I don't see RIM going ANYWHERE soon, they are by far still the best messaging provider, and provider of business services of ANY mobile platform, and they also have a VERY big market share already. Finally, we're going to really have to see some new phones with Android before anything can happen, because as of this writing, the only real Android phone in the US is the G1, which is lacking in many areas.

I think Android taking over would definitely be a good thing, but I don't see it happening this late in the game, they just missed the train I think.

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I think it's a little to early to say that Android has missed the game. I agree with your argument for the most part, but I'm waiting to see how the launches of Android phones go for the other major providers. Last I heard, Sony Ericsson and Samsung were both going to launch Android phones this summer.

Android may be a flop, but I don't see any reason to nail the coffin shut quite yet.

I wasn't saying it was a flop, or that it missed the boat to being successful. What I meant was that I don't think it can be the MOST popular platform in 2 years. I actually hope there is not a common platform in two years, mainly because it helps drive competition between companies/carriers etc.

Other than having a crappy camera, where is the G1 lacking?

This might sound silly, but it's butt-ugly.

Aesthetics are generally relative; I think the iPhones look pretty ugly too, especially the ones with the silver trim. I do wish the standard G1s had the fancy silk-screen designs on the case like the Google Dev Phone, but with a choice of three colors, I really like the black phone, but my wife really liked the brown/tan model. Beyond that, they look quite a lot like T-Mobile's Sidekick models, which are a giant success, or at least where I live...

IMO it's lacking first because it's only on T-Mobile, which is one of the smaller carriers in the U.S, so there is less of an incentive to develop apps for it, because there are inherently less users. Another issue is that T-Mobile has a very small service area compared to AT&T or Verizon, so applications that demand connectivity to work effectively would have trouble. This is a big issue for companies that develop applications for serious business/government use like ours (emergency management). Not being able to listen to your Pandora radio is one thing, but not getting alerts about an emergency is totally different story (this is just our case in particular).

Well, for one thing, the G1 is not locked to T-Mobile; it will work on any GSM network, which in the US means AT&T, although according to some people, the 3G doesn't work on AT&T because of different radio frequencies.

Secondly, while I haven't had much experience outside of the Ohio and New York regions, I've never had any problems with service in the three years I've been with T-Mobile, and they're constantly notifying me of new towers going up in my area. I've looked at their coverage maps, and it really seems to me like you'd have to go way out in farm country or forest areas to lose your signal; anywhere with a highway nearby seems to be covered. But then again, I can't tell if they're stretching the truth or not...

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