R2D2 and Roy Batty, both created as androids but with wildly divergent results. One a trusted side-kick, with all the answers. The other the intelligent psycho android played by Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner, who kills his maker. Which one will Google’s Android be?After speaking with some folks, lets clear up some confusion, the G-Phone is not a phone like iPhone, but rather an operating system. Google at this point will not be making the phone, they are partnering with manufacturers to use their operating system. It appears that Google has and continues to benefit from this confusion which it helped create.

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer called the Android platform “a mere press release,” which is correct. Understanding the impact on the mobile industry, be it a benevolent “open” platform that helps the consumer or not, is not possible at this point.

Only time will tell. But the new $10 million Android developer competition should help Google’s cause.

Quick Links:

Android

Roy Batty

Blade Runner

Star Wars

R2D2

Google’s Android

Steve Ballmer comments

Tictalk’s mobile phones are targeted at grade school children and Firefly’s Glowphone is targeted at 5 year olds, so why isn’t anyone building a phone for toddlers? First, I have seen many toddlers walking and talking into toy phones. They even know how to point it at you and say cheese.

(Left) The early prototype of the Toddler Phone for children under 5.

Second, they are the future and you need to capture them early. If the competition is at 5, you better have a phone for 2 year olds. I believe the phone would be a bit different even than the Firefly and Tictalk, which has been described as more toy-like, but really looks like a stopwatch with a speaker.

The new toddler and infant phone could be a stuffed animal or perhaps it could be a customized replication of their parent’s head, so the child actually thinks they are talking to a person. Someone make this happen, because children are our future and you need to lock the future customer in now.

Quick Links.

Firefly Mobile

TicTalk

35 AT&T employees bitten by rabid Wolf.

A teen unlocked the iPhone in New Jersey to discover it was actually a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The boy immediately sent the phone to AT&T headquarters where it bit 35 employees. The employees were dispatched with silver bullets, but there is no telling if they were really terminated or if they have been transformed into Apple employees.

AT&T representative declined to comment, but according to sources close to the contract negotiations with Apple and Steve Jobs, “We never saw it coming. He seemed like such a nice guy.”

If the unlocked iPhone proliferates, or if The House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet rules in favor of the consumer, then it is clear the iPhone will be the handset that killed the carriers. The carriers will not be the clear winners in the race for billions in the mobile channel.

As Ed Markey, the Committee Chairman states “We need to unbundle phones. The consumer should be king and should be able to take their device with them, to whichever network provider is offering them a better deal… ”
And now Google is kicking them when they are down, apparently the long rumored gPhone is going to make it to the market.

Now the question is for all you iPhone owners, will Apple pull the link to YouTube?

Quick Links:

Teen Unlocks iPhone

Apple, iPhone, AT&T iPhone

The House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet

Congressman Ed Markey

Business Standard, GPhone to Ring

The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, Aesop’s Fables