Will It Fail? - The T-mobile G1

I think this is a pretty good subject to start with, seeing as how I'm on T-mobile and I'm a bit pissed that I can't get a Blackberry Storm. That said, let's get started, shall we?

Google hopes this phone becomes very popular so that people get exposed to its ad platform. WILL IT FAIL?

Why it won't:
T-mobile lacks a real "iphone killer" like Sprint and Verizon have. The success of these handsets is also debatable, but they weren't terrible flops, so I guess that counts for something.

However, the G1 is a bit better than these phones. It has the G-monster behind it, which hires the smartest people in the US and beyond. G-engineers have shown an amazing ability to know what people want out of their electric anything (Search, Gmail, Chrome). And the fact that the phone has a real browser has to be commended. Besides the Storm, The G-phone is the only product that can challenge the iPhone/Pod in this respect. AND, it has a keyboard, which is a big deal to people who don't really feel like typing on a screen.

Why it will:
An important aspect of having a strong brand is being the first to fill a niche (correctly). Google knows this - they weren't the first search engine, but they were the first to really make it user-friendly. The same with gmail/g-chat/g-maps. However, many aspects of the Google empire couldn't really differentiate themselves from everyone else (Froogle/google video/picasa - multi-fail). The G1 does not seem to really revolutionize anything that the iPhone does, hence why people aren't getting to excited about it. I don't think there will be too many lines for this phone because it isn't as awesomely different from anything else. Even if the phone has the g-monster behind it.

UPDATE: And it has no commercials! What are you doing T-mobile? You know you've got some dough for Catherine Zeta-Jones-Douglass SOMEWHERE in your offices.


Verdict:

FAIL...?

In the end, the phone FAILS, but just barely. The iPhone is still the iPhone, and the Storm has the Blackberry name (which is huge after they released the trackball phones). But this phone could still sell to the technophile here and there. Like Sarah Palin, that just doesn't reach enough people.

What do you think? Prove me wrong.