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It's pretty obvious that this is written like a rant. He's been trying to get into Android on the G1 but has gotten frustrated. Now he's venting.

However, he does point out how many of his issues can be solved and after his list he makes the real point: It's not just one flaw that makes it rough, but rather the general lack of polish. If you're willing to put up with that, like a lot of Linux users did for years, then you will probably like it. But most people would rather things "just work" and so they would rather opt for an iPhone. Sometimes it's the little things that make a lasting impression.

"Many of the issues can be solved" .. that is why I love Android and open platforms in general. You see a problem, you are free to go fix it. No need to wait for Apple.

I know we're not supposed to ding Android for the G1's faults. But it's been, what, over a year and a half since the OHA unveiled the platform? Doesn't Android deserve some blame for being an OS that, in 20 months, only one company has been able to put on one model of one phone?

I'm looking forward to all of the new Android devices that are apparently waiting in the wings, but this long downtime hasn't done the platform any favors.

The future that your looking forward to is already here but, as usual, not evenly distributed yet. I live in the UK and have had an HTC magic (http://www.htc.com/www/product/magic/overview.html) for a couple of months (with vodafone). It's a really good handset.

> Doesn't Android deserve some blame for being an OS that, in 20 months, only one company has been able to put on one model of one phone?

Here in the UK there's three in the shops right now:

* G1

* Magic

* Hero

The last of which happens to be awesome [1].

[1] http://www.slashgear.com/htc-hero-review-2149880/

"First, it's mixing the weaknesses of Android with the weaknesses of the G1 hardware. There might not be a lot options available these days when it comes to buying an Android-enabled phone but it looks like this is going to change soon."

And when it does we can evaluate the new Android phone on its merits then and there. "It's available on only one crappy set of hardware" is a legitimate criticism of the Android platform.

"How long did you have to wait to get copy and paste working on the iPhone? Can you run multiple apps at the same time on the iPhone? Can you have widgets on the iPhone? What about the well known problems of the iPhone App Store we all hear a lot about these days?"

I've used copy and paste maybe once or twice, and I'm not convinced full-blown multitasking is worthwhile for the iPhone. And the first iPhone had an inconvenient headphone jack. And you can't replace the battery easily. Fair enough. But these are fairly high-level gripes. Basic shit you should get right to even compete with the iPhone--like music, mail, webbrowsing, and speed--are at the basis of his complaints.

I would much rather have a good, reliable keyboard, web browser, mail client, and MP3 player on my phone than have copy-and-paste or multitasking. I would rather have a sizable library of third party apps to choose from than not, even if the librarian arbitrarily bans books for stupid reasons.

Of course no one is perfect. But this guy is comparing Android to iPhone, one on one, and finding that Android falls short when it comes to basic functionality. That's a valid criticism.

The confusion between problems with hardware and problems with software is one reason why Apple only sells packages of the two.