Was Google wrong-footed with the NexusOne and subsequent Nexus S Or did it achieve its intended target, just not the one called mass-market success that most of us presumed?
I bought my NexusOne early on and had it personalised and engraved. At the time, the NexusOne was so far ahead of the other phones be it its 800x480 AMOLED screen, 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU (and associated graphics acceleration) and camera. It pushed the boundaries of what we expected from a phone and was an icon for others to aspire too.
The NexusOne also shipped with plain-vanilla Eclair Android (2.1). There was no personalisation of the user interface the way most manufacturers had done. To make the phones unique and have a branded experience, each had customised the UI and colours to differing degrees. Samsung's TouchWiz colours were particular garish. Acer tastefully kept most of the stock Android experience but with a few widgets thrown in. Sony-Ericsson's X10 and X10 mini totally lost the plot and its heavy Timescape customisations mean that even today, they are still stuck on ancient versions of Android that nobody bothers with anymore.
The NexusOne was an ideal, not a product for the masses. It was to show that stock Android could be made good enough that heavy, messy customisations were not needed. It was a beacon for developers, both hardware and software to aspire to, a beacon to unite the Android UI before it got too fragmented.
And it worked. Depsite being pulled from sale, most early Android developers got one free and everyone in the IT industry seemed to be carrying one.
The first NexusOne I saw belonged to John Stefanac, big boss of Qualcomm for the region. Fitting as it was powered by a Qualcomm chip. But as time went on, half the journalists (and most of the geekier ones) all had NexusOnes. A year after its launch, I found myself at a dinner table in Taiwan with three NexusOnes and one HTC Desire HD. It was that prevalent.
We three Nexus One owners also pointed out that the Desire HD had an LCD screen, which was painfully obvious on our small, dark dinner table.
But with the Nexus S, many have said Google has lost it. Launched late last year, it sports a spec of yesteryear with a 1 GHz CPU and incremental improvements here and there, hardly better than a NexusOne. Plus, at the time of its launch, dual-core nVidia Tegra 2 phones were just around the corner, making its CPU look feeble in comparison.
Yes, it was the first phone to come with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but that was about it and besides, who runs stock ROMs these days anyway? I was on an unofficial Gingerbread within a couple of weeks of its launch on my NexusOne.
Well, three months into 2011 I think the latest version of Gingerbread, 2.3.3, has again shown what Google was aiming for with the Nexus S. It was not about unifying the UI or creating a reference platform for power and features again, the NexusOne already did that, rather, it was all about NFC.
Near Field Communications, the technology used in contactless smart cards is poised to change the way mobile payments are made (and Google has Google Checkout too, one must not foret). It is poised to change the way indoor navigation works (as indoors, you cannot see the GPS satellites in the sky).
With 2.3.3 the world went hoo-hah about two things. First was a colour correction (which was boring and only shows that not just Apple fanatics read between the liens) and the next was the ability to write, not just read compatible NFC tags.
Passive NFC tags are useful for transport tokens and access. Software based ones are better as it can be turned on and off and parameters can be changed. But just think of the possibilities of a phone that can write, not just read tags.
Offline tag? Cookie crumbs in places with no 3G (or, in the almost unique case of Thailand now, 2G) connectivity? Who cares about an extra core and more MHz when you can play with RFID tags to your heart's content and create the next big thing?
The Nexus S was launched only in the US and Europe, areas with well developed NFC infrastructure and acceptance. The hype around NFC has been said far and wide and now, with the Nexus S, Google is delivering the tools to address that hype to real-world developers.
Today I am still happy with my NexusOne running Gingerbread (without the NFC module though). But if I were to buy a new phone, would I go for faster and more of the same with Tegra 2 phones such as the LG Optimus Two or try the Galaxy S II with its dual-core Samsung chip? Or would I want to stay true to Google's vision and see what the hype about NFC is about as the apps start to hit the Android Market? Do I stay on the bleeding edge of software development or choose a slightly more powerful phone platform? Yes, the Galaxy S II might have NFC, but when will it receive the latest OS upgrade to enable it?
The Nexus S might have last year's CPU, but it is still at the bleeding edge of innovation. The paradigm of progress has shifted.
0 ความคิดเห็น:
Post a Comment