Top 9 reasons why the Google Nexus One Phone beats Apple’s iPhone

On 20/12/2009, In AI, Business, Google, Linux, Masters at work, Open Source, Technology, Trading, By Josh
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Adobe Flash on Apple iPhone1. Apple blocks Flash on the iPhone and iPod touch

2. Google is open to open-source contributions.

The Google Nexus One uses the Linux kernel. Google supports Open Standards and the Nexus One will too.

Apple blocks open-source efforts. I have to wait and re-jailbreak my device every time the O.S. is updated making me lose precious time and it’s just a hassle. Apple prevents me from using one of the most useful third-party provided application that existed, which is to have the whole of Wikipedia – the sum of human knowledge – accessible offline in my hand.

Google, on the other hand, has open-sourced Android. Linux is open-source.

3. Google-subsidized Telecom

Traditional Telcos in Northern America are greedy companies who don’t listen to their customers. I want Google to undermine them by subsidizing my Telecommunications through mobile ads and use of their services.

Why do I think this will happen? The answer is here in three parts:
3.1. The essence of Google’s success (2007)
This explains how Google relies on ads to subsidize many of their technologies, but also:

  • “massive revenues from contextualized highly-targeted ads”
  • “all problem solving is some kind of search”
  • “optimized architecture”

3.2. Google Telecom, Hello! (2007)

  • Number 1 Internet brand name => a Google-branded device is highly valuable.
  • Massive purchase of Dark Fiber
  • Dispatching of large number of Google Data Centers around the US, each built on highly optimized hardware and software
  • Google Talk integration into GMail
  • GrandCentral Acquisition -> Google Voice now
  • ” I believe Google Telecom will offer free calls locally and worldwide to fixed telephone lines and mobiles to individual users and basic paid access for businesses and bring a more severe disruption of the Telecom industry as it will rely on getting more advertising through these channels.”

3.3. See “Google ad-subsidized Telecom“, my video about at the Deloitte Canada TMT Predictions 2010 and vote for me (you can vote once per day) (2009).

  • Admob Acquisition
  • Gizmo 5 acquisition
  • Tinkering with free Wi-fi in 47 airports
  • Google branded phone
  • Disruptive behavior

4. Feats of Engineering

Google values Engineering and Engineers. This is why they have scalable and robust technological architecture.

5. Google Nexus One is a General Purpose Computing device & has Multi-tasking out-of-the-box

The Google Nexus One phone will be a General Purpose Mobile computing device. The Apple iPhone isn’t or you need to jailbreak and get two separate apps like BackGrounder and MultiFl0w to enable these. Besides, it’s more fun to compute:

6. Google services Integration

I use so many Google services and apps that it’s unmentionable. I was an early adopter of Google search and I also have a Google Voice account.

7. The Google Nexus One is incredibly fast

The Google Nexus One has an optimized Android 2.1 O.S. as well as the Qualcomm 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU/Platform, itself architected around an ARM chip.

8. The Nexus One is beautiful

Check out the screenshots at Engadget.

9. And lastly, the Google Nexus One will also make phone calls. The iPhone drops them:

Dear Google, I want my own Google Nexus One.

Thank you.

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  • Josh
    Hi Skot, it appears the Nexus one will not support Flash right out of the box but Google and Adobe have cooperated on it and Adobe has demonstrated it. Check it out in my newest post: http://www.yashlabs.com/wp/2010/01/05/the-googl...
  • skot
    I have no doubt Google will enable Flash for their services, but will they go the extra mile and enable a complete implementation? It's been awhile since I've used the G1 mobile device and I don't it being available in early Android versions.

    Hopefully we can get some confirmation of Flash and multi-tasking capability from those who are fortunate enough to use the Nexus One device at this time. A simple anonymous yes or no would suffice and could be enough to sway me away from the N900.

    Yes, I also think Nokia should build Android devices but with their recent closing of two of their flagship stores in New York and Chicago as well as their announcement they were moving away from the 'smartphone' platform in 2010 I don't see hope for the company beyond creating millions of cheap entry level devices for the masses. Too bad really.
  • Josh
    Interesting feedback, Skot. No doubt the Maemo platform based on Linux can do multi-tasking out-of-the-box as any UNIX/POSIX inspired O.S. can.

    Google uses Flash in Youtube, Google Finance and Google Analytics. Do you have any doubt that their own device will not enable their own services to work straight away? I don't.

    You do have a point about the amount of personal activity logging and data that we entrust over though, but as anything else, it is a trade-off where you relinquish part of what you deem valuable for something you deem more valuable.

    I think Nokia should build Android devices.
  • skot
    Fred, Christian, and Josh-

    Two words... "Nokia N900"

    Flash support - Check
    Desktop browsing experience - Check
    Community development underway - Check
    Multi-tasking BEAST - Check check check....

    I went from the iPhone 3G to the N900 and found it to be a rich experience. Sure the Maemo platform is a little light on the applications at this time but it's coming around. I'm hardly a Nokia fanboi and have used many different mobile devices, but the N900 provides the richest mobile computing experience to date.

    Unless the Nexus One has Flash support, and decent multi-tasking it will simply be just another Android device. The only difference is this mobile device will keep track of every search, every request, every page you browse (including your position on the face of the earth) and compile it into a gigantic consumer profile. And we as mobile device lemmings will swallow the pill and jump down the hole to see what's on the other side.....
  • Josh
    Thanks for the comments Fred and Christian - extremely interesting points throughout.

    1. Flash can run well and we should have no reason to have crippled devices in this day and age. I use Flash extensively when using a desktop or laptop browser and I want the experience to be the same on the go. Apple would prefer us to use App Store applications instead, thereby creating a barrier between the Net experience and the device experience. It shouldn't be like this. Apple needs to beware because Google's Nexus One should support Flash.

    2. Sure, Mac OS X's core is based on open-sourced Darwin, but closing the device built around it to the Web is not a good thing. Speaking of contributions, Google contributes back to the Open-source community much more than Apple.

    3. Perfect storm indeed: the commoditization of Telecommunications

    4. Google does not need to: Google is built on pure Engineering, not UI beauty design. Thus, 'outsourcing' the hardware design and manufacturing is super sound.

    5. I don't agree at all: multi-tasking is a basic evolution of computing which we already knew how to do very well with UNIX systems. Single-tasking is regressive. It should be an essential feature of any general-purpose computing device and operating systems.

    The machine has to work for me, not the other way round.

    There should be no excuses today to have a crippled device - we've known how to build multi-tasking systems for years.

    Get the proper kernel and O.S. and vision that the mobile device should also be a general-purpose computing device and we're set.

    Google leads here.

    7. The iPhone UI is fantastic, granted, and I'm a big fan of it. However, performance is about the integration of many components, not just the GPU. The CPU, the memory, the DSP, etc... should all be optimized.

    As for games, Apple is going a dangerous route here, but I guess they don't really want to target some type of businesses so they will still be fine. This route was taken by Microsoft and caused their downfall - after 25 years in the business, you'd expect they release something more robust than Vista. The downtrend started when they began throwing money at games and hardware, all non-core activities.

    8. Agreed - their designs are superb

    9. That was partially tongue-in-cheek seeing that my source is Saturday Night Live. However, you could argue that since the Google Nexus One phone already made its way on the show, it's up there in pop culture already.

    Now, I basically believe that Apple has trouble brewing for it if in iPhone O.S. 4 it doesn't provide a robust multi-tasking experience out of the box.
  • @FredBrunel So you are an iPhone Geekette. That's great for you but I have to correct a few statements you're wrongly making here.

    >> Try to browse a heavy movie website with your Flash-powered phone, I don’t think it will appreciate.

    Maybe not. But why should Apple make this decision for me? What if I want to browse Flash content at my own risk? And don't you think there are light and useful applications out there, such as a Vimeo of blip.tv video player?

    >> If you let people change it, it lead to fragmentation of incompatible OS.

    Oh yes? Examples, maybe? Incompatible Apache, MySQL or Ubuntu? Never heard of that. When an open source platform/community is well developped and taken care of, it does not "fork" so easily.

    >> [Apple] recently filled a patent for distribution ads on a computing device.

    Can you imagine that their greedy lawyers would sue you if ever you try to distribute ads on a computing device? That's what Apple calls "innovation" -- patent generic ideas. I am a strong supporter of computing code intellectual property (wether open source or proprietary), but a strong opponent of generic computing design patents that harm innovation.

    >> Google won’t even design it’s own hardware as Apple is doing.

    That's the beauty. We'll have a real choice between dozens of models from various companies, with different sets of hardware capabilities, not just a few choices as you have on the Apple/iPod/iPhone narrow-thinking world.

    >> Multitasking is also a memory and performance hog.

    Come on. It works pretty well on my HTC Dream. When I have too many apps open I kill a few of them with TaskKiller and that's it. So no, on Android, it’s *not* the same. You don't know what you are talking about and I can easily imagine why ;)

    >> If you look at the amount of bad application on the App Store (...)

    Same on the Android Market. When a platform (such as MS Windows for instance) is really successfull such things happen and you have to be careful on what you install or not. Welcome to the club, Apple fans! ;)

    >> Google services Integration

    You can't say much but I will. With Apple devices there is no life possible without Apple services intergration. With Android it's totally different. Google free services are perfectly integrated but none of them is mandatory. You can use and access freely whatever alternative you wish. The Android Market itself is a non-exclusive resource: http://sn.im/androidmarkt

    Conclusion 1: you have the right to love your iPhone and to appreciate Apple's cutting edge technology. You also have the right to love your Porsche and attend trendy Formula 1 races. But please, let the rest of us enjoy an open set of technology and services that do not tend to ultra-capitalism, DRM, and innovation restricted to an happy few community.

    Conclusion 2: Let me, as well as Africans and Asian people, enjoy a mobile technology that fullfill their need and that they can afford. I support this stand no matter what bells and whistles Apple tight to its beautifully patented, high class technology.
  • Hi Josh,

    (1) Flash is a memory hog, even on modern computers. Apple couldn't let it happen on the first iPhone device with (now) 3-years old technology. Try to browse a heavy movie website with your Flash-powered phone, I don't think it will appreciate.

    (2) The Darwin kernel that powers the iPhone and MacOS are open-source projects as well as WebKit. The community should say thank you to Apple for cleaning the horrible KHTML framework and turn it into one of the most popular browser framework -- also used in Android.

    Android as open-source is a blessing and a curse. If you let people change it, it lead to fragmentation of incompatible OS. This is why Google HAD to make their own. Suddently, open sourcing is not that fun anymore.

    (3) Make no mistakes about it, Apple also wants to break free with the carrier. They recently filled a patent for distribution ads on a computing device; so it may come faster than we think.

    (4) Well, if a company know how to build carefully designers, engineered and integrated product it's Apple. Google won't even design it's own hardware as Apple is doing.

    (5) Multitasking is also a memory and performance hog. I think it will come to the iPhone but Apple has to draw a line. If you look at the amount of bad application on the App Store, I'm pretty sure that bad developers will make a bad use of it, making your iPhone unusable and unresponsive.

    The Palm Pre has also multitasking with a handset with similar performance as the iPhone and the result is catastrophic. On Android, it's the same.

    (6) Ok, can't say much.

    (7) Performance. Well, the most important piece of technology is a mobile device is the GPU and the integration with the OS. Wondering why the iPhone OS as a fantastic precise UI despite the (now) low pixel density? Or amazing morphing animation in the UI? Well it's called 3D accelerated sub-pixel rendering. Everything on the iPhone is composited *in real-time* on the screen.

    On Android? It's all software-based. Where are the 3D games? None.

    (8) Thank you Apple for leading the way in good taste.

    (9) iPhone drops calls on AT&T, not on Rogers on in other countries.
  • Marto
    "Dear Google, I want my own Google Nexus One."

    You're not the only one, jeje. If Reuters' claim that it will be unlocked for $199 or $99 with an old account I'll probably be getting more than one!
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