Collection Box for the Back of My Mind
“I’m Not Down”, The Clash
Good music doesn’t age. 30 years after its release, London Calling sounds just as relevant today.
Drewbot
Some Google Phone Counterpoints
Last GPhone post for awhile, I promise. The breathless enthusiasm of the blogs got to me for a moment there. But here’s some nice coverage that calmly assesses why this isn’t a game changer. I still believe it’s Google’s worst idea since Lively.
Below are a few thoughtful articles that blow out my original points.
T-Mobile's Pushing the Nexus One Google Phone Because Verizon Said No
Told ya. This whole thing is working out great for T-Mobile and HTC though. I think it’s a huge mistake for Google.
fek:
Meet The Gawker Guide to Gift Guides:
Does it look like a cookie, but smell like shit? If the answer to any of those questions is “Yes,” it’s advertorial. And like anal sex, everyone’s thought about doing it. Even lesbians/non-profits. Most people have and/or will. Gift guides are great places to slip in advertorial.
Related:
From: “James D.”
Date: December 13, 2009 1:35:29 AM EST
To: “Foster Kamer”
Subject: Re: HEY
Jesus man. You trying to get me fired?
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
——-Original Message——-
From: Foster Kamer
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:27:59
To: James D.
Subject: Re: HEY
You should tell Denton and Gabriel to send me on Wintermodo or whatever. But yeah: I’m taking a month off and going to France or something in March. Maybe Thailand. Who the fuck knows.
Anyway. You’re gonna love this post. Attached, Figure 1.2
Fantastic post.
“ But what if Google starts to sell this thing? This is “a big deal” on the level of Neo learning Kung Fu in The Matrix. This means Google is making hardware. ”
TechCrunch on The Google Phone.
Kind of.
HTC is making hardware. Google is helping design. The partner phones Google helped design and launch from HTC and Motorola (the H1, H2, and the Droid) were co-branded devices. They were collaborations, because dream as Google might, they knew they needed mobile hardware expertise to pull this off, lest they end up with Microsoft in the pit of mobile hubris.
So what does it mean if Google makes a phone with HTC and brands it “Google?” Well…not too much. The man on the street thinks Google when he sees an H1 or H2. HTC as a brand is still barely established.
What I wonder is how this will affect the rest of the mobile industry: will Verizon hawk a phone where Google controls the hardware and software 100%? Will Motorola continue to bet big bucks on Android when Google becomes their competitor?
Personally, I don’t get what Google gains by making a true Google phone, rather than sticking to the partner route. The whole affair reminds me of the story of Netflix and Roku: Netflix CEO, Reid Hasings, pulled the plug on the launch of the Netflix branded streaming box mere days before zero-hour. Hastings reasoned that it would be better to hand the designs over to Roku and remain agnostic, so as not to close the door on streaming via the XBox, PS3, Tivo, and more. The strategy worked well for Netflix, and I imagine it would work well for Google.
“ The UC-San Diego study reaffirms what we already knew about print media—that it’s steadily losing readership. But words themselves are doing just fine, thanks to the Web. Overall, words are being consumed at a breakneck speed: In the span of five days, the average American consumes more words (via reading and hearing them on TV or radio) than War and Peace contains. ”
“ When a newspaper dies in America, it is not simply that a commercial enterprise has failed; a sense of place has failed. If the San Francisco Chronicle is near death—and why else would the editors celebrate its 144th anniversary? and why else would the editors devote a week to feature articles on fog?—it is because San Francisco’s sense of itself as a city is perishing. ”
Richard Rodriguez (Via Harper’s Magazine)
