Also, Google can embed a White Spaces modem in those devices as soon as the FCC gives them the green light, which basically means free unlimited wireless broadband for all.

Building a global White Spaces network is cheap, all they need to do is partner with FON to build a $20 White Spaces enabled router that all consumers will install at home on their home broadband or just connected to the electricity to function only as a mesh forwarder, and Google just needs to setup a few Base stations per city connected to their dark fiber, and all the wireless broadband Internet is spread around the whole city using the 700mhz spectrum of white spaces and Mesh networking between all the routers.

> I love Google for all their functionalities but they have terrible visual designers.

That would be an interesting observation if we had any confirmation as to Google’s input viz a particular device.

Who says Google have involved themselves in _any_ phone’s external appearance? Find us a quote and post a link, Ok? Meanwhile, let’s recall that these folks have a famously minimalistic website…one which is often lauded for exactly that quality. On the other hand, Motorola can be hit-or-miss. Ever seen a ROKR? And, until recently, HTC (maker of the G1) have no particular record of stylistic flair in hardware design.

> Everything they make looks less elegant and terrible compared to their
> competition. Android OS looks like crap visually even in v2.0.

I disagree. Anybody who announces that _Android_ ‘looks like crap’ hasn’t spent a few days with an unskinned WinMo 6.1 phone or – God help you – one of those 1st gen. Blackberry Storm things. :P Meanwhile, so long as we limit ourselves to appearance (and, mainly, appearance of the base-level system screens rather than the hand-set’s shell), I’m not exactly bowled over by the iPhone’s approach, either.

Laugh if you want, but ask around; many iPhone owners feel the same way. That inflexible, ‘checkerboard’ home-screen is not what convinced them to buy and a good many find themselves bored to tears, after a couple years of looking at the dopey thing. And, hey – how much difference is there between system settings on Android vs iPhone? Pull up some screenshots and check them side-by-side.

Same goes for the alleged netbook project. Google have previously announced they were working with a hardware partner on something along those lines. I’d need to see compelling evidence before I could believe this collaborative effort (with Google as consultant/OS provider) has morphed into a ‘Google Book’ sub-contract deal.

http://theunlockr.com/2009/10/16/what-new-htc-android-phone-is-this/

G1 – A phone that Google helped design = beyond terrible
Droid – A phone Google is influencing the design also (as stated by BGR) went from looking good in the early builds to rather much uglier at the end.

Google please hire better visual designers before even trying to make a phone.

I think that you hit the nail on the head on two points. One, Google’s culture is heavily decentralized, which explains why you don’t see Google’s family of products interconnected in a value added fashion (e.g., Wave should be a no brainer to integrate with News, YouTube, Maps, Blogger, Calendar, Documents and Sites).

Arguably, it explains the curious decision to come out with two OS’s (Android, Chrome) when they have yet to perfect one. Culturally, they lack the Jobs-ian mindset to say 1+1=3, focusing instead on a loosely coupled approach to products.

Two is that there is no better way to undermine your open ecosystem “arms dealer” dealer positioning than by competing against the same OEMs (and potentially, Carriers) that you are hoping to get to adopt your platform.

That said, I am sure they understand that winning – beating, outflanking Apple – requires an integrated hardware, software, service and tools platform that is highest common divisor versus lowest common denominator oriented, and see a window to winning (or trying to).

That’s why I’ve thought from the get go that all of the blather about the ‘inevitably’ of Android shows a serious lack of understanding about just how hard it is to make a hardware/software/service/tools platform play truly successful.

Mark