T-Mobile announced their plans to market the first smartphone based on Google’s open source mobile operating system, Android.  The new phone, built by HTC and called the G1, will be generally available by October 22nd in the US (and in the U.K. in November, and the rest of Europe in early 2009), and will cost US$179 with a two-year voice and data service contract.  It includes a number of powerful features, including:

• a touchscreen interface
• a slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• a trackball for application navigation
• a 3-megapixel camera
• GPS
• Wi-Fi connectivity
• 3G (with dual-band UMTS)
• quad-band GSM support
• multimedia messaging
• e-mail support (but not Microsoft Exchange integration yet)
• instant messaging
• a rich HTML web browser
• the ability to run multiple applications simultaneously
• a music player (with automated access to the Amazon MP3 store)
• integrated Bluetooth wireless headset support

Indeed, T-Mobile’s G1 possesses a lot of advanced smartphone functionality, but by far its most interesting feature is the operating system which manages all of these features, the new Android OS.

If Google’s aspirations come true, Android will become a very popular platform for mobile devices - they expect 400,000 Android-based phones to be sold before the end of 2008 alone.  At that rate, Android may very well become one of the most pervasive operating systems for smartphones in 2009, rivaling Symbian and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, and also increasing competitive pressure on Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry lines.

What does Android mean to salespeople?

Sales professionals should take note of the official market introduction of Android for several reasons:

• Even if you never buy an Android-based device, the new OS should keep the cost of smartphones low.  That means better buys on any smartphone in 2009, no matter what make or model you select.
• Five mobile platforms will vie for your attention over the next year: Apple’s iPhone, Windows Mobile, Google’s Android, Symbian from the Symbian Foundation, and RIM’s BlackBerry OS.  Of these, only Android and Symbian are open source platforms, which means that developers can create applications at significantly lower cost.  That means more choices for you in how you configure and expand the functionality of your smartphone device.
• Android’s open source aspect gives it a significant competitive advantage, at least in the short-term.  Apple is now getting flak from users about their entirely proprietary, walled-garden, iTunes-based AppStore, as they block applications that they very broadly deem competitive with any of their offerings.  Microsoft recently announced that they are delaying the launch of the next version of their proprietary Windows Mobile OS until the “second half of 2009″.  Symbian is still re-organizing as an open source foundation, and will need more time to develop and launch a new version.  This means that we should see a huge influx of new applications available for Android devices in the next few months and well beyond, giving the platform more extensibility and adaptability than any other platform by the middle of 2009.
• Android’s user experience rivals the Apple iPhone’s multi-touch interface - although for pure elegance and simplicity, the nod would have to go to Apple here.  Still, Android is remarkably simple to operate and customize on the G1, making it one of the friendliest devices on the market.  As Sprint and other carriers release their Android phones over the next few months, this ease of use should make Android very attractive to new users in the smartphone market.
• In 2009, Android will be available on virtually every carrier, in a wide variety of configurations, and all at relatively low price points.  Apple is tied exclusively to AT&T in the U.S. market, at least for the next year or so, which will become a significant competitive limitation.  The newest releases of  BlackBerry devices - such as the Bold, Storm and Thunder - should help RIM maintain its growing market share in smartphones, but by the middle of 2009, the number of new Android phones should explode well beyond the limited number of models that RIM will provide.  The next releases of Symbian and Windows Mobile won’t make an impact until the end of 2009, at earliest - and by then, Android’s momentum may be too much to stop.

In short, Android’s impending ubiquity, extensibility, expandability, ease of use and low cost should make it a very formidable competitor in the smartphone market in the next year.

More importantly, these features may make Android the ideal mobile computing platform for sales professionals, as it is designed from the core outward with “cloud computing” in mind.  In addition to making voice calls, Android smartphones should excel in connecting to the Internet for web browsing, data searches (remember: it’s from Google), hosted applications (such as CRM, for example), navigation (using services such as Google Maps), text messaging and e-mail.  As additional functionality becomes available in the Android Marketplace of third-party applications, sales pros will be able to configure their devices to suit their individual requirements at very low cost.

So, should salespeople buy an Android phone now?

If you are in the U.S., and use T-Mobile, you should definitely consider the G1 for your next smartphone.  It does almost everything that a sales professional needs in a mobile phone.  It only lacks Microsoft Exchange integration - but Google expects this to be addressed in the next few weeks as application developers complete work on a solution.  One other potential problem is the limited availability of 3G networks from T-Mobile, although they expect to expand 3G coverage aggressively over the next year - still, check the coverage map for your area before jumping in.

If you are using a carrier other than T-Mobile, or using another smartphone platform (such as Symbian or Windows Mobile) and are locked into a service contract, it’s almost certainly not worth switching just to get the G1.  Instead, just wait for your carrier to introduce their own Android-based phone, and upgrade when your contract expires.  Sprint intends to release an Android device by the end of 2008, and virtually all other carriers will release their own devices in the first half of 2009.

If you are using a BlackBerry or iPhone, and are perfectly happy, don’t panic.  Your own platforms are as useful as when you first bought them, and they will continue to be so, even as Android’s presence in the marketplace expands.  But monitor the progress of Android over the next year or so - you may very well be tempted to switch by 2010.

Tags: Android, T-Mobile G1