The web’s been busily discussing the prospect of a G2 phone from T-Mobile, rumoured for release next month. The consensus seems to be that it won’t happen because the iPhone wannabe G1 has only been out a couple of months and an early release would be bad PR.
It’s probably true that a lot of early adopters would be miffed if a better handset came out 2 or 3 months later but at the moment T-Mobile will be missing sales because of the G1’s shortcomings.
For example, I’d be very keen to get my hands on one except that a phone with no PC or Mac sync capability is useless to me.
I don’t want to have to use a Google account to backup my contacts and calendar, I want to be able – as I can with my Blackberry – to add events and contacts to either my Mac or mobile and then merge them on sync.
That way of working suits me and the best devices fit the work patterns of their users, not require users to change their habits.
So although a new device would upset some, the calculation T-Mobile have to make is this: does it make sense to keep on the right side of people who are already tied into long term contracts in return for putting off people who might otherwise buy the handset?
I suspect a G2 will be with us sooner than many think, but as with Apple’s original iPhone I’m puzzled how T-Mobile released a supposedly next-generation handset which lacked many commonly used and standard features.
People are looking at this all wrong; unlike the iPhone it’s always been the intention to have multiple phones powered by Android.
T-Mobile networks don’t stock only one Windows Mobile or Symbian phone so why would they limit themselves to just one Android phone?
@G1User – I agree, most of the comment on this rumour (and we should remember that’s all this is atm) is treating the G1 as a single shot device instead of merely the first device in a whole range of products.
I’m sure a lot of G1 users would be a bit miffed if a G2 branded phone appeared but much of that ire will have created at the way the G1 has been reported and marketed. No-one laments the arrival of new WinMo and Blackberry devices!