The horse is dead. Design, feel, features, openness, customizability — we’ve heard it all. The main arguments are well understood by anyone with an interest in this discussion.

But there’s another one that I’ve not heard articulated yet — the argument for why both companies do what they do. Or, more specifically, why one would prefer one or the other based on their respective reasons for being in the mobile space.

I personally like Apple’s reasons for being there much more than Google’s. That is to say, I prefer the philosophy of an egotistical, overly ambitious design freak wanting to take over the world with perfectly designed, functional works of art to that of an ingenious advertising company wanting to drop millions upon millions of copies of their operating system — running on anything (toasters, toothbrushes, tricycles, et. al.) — for the sole purpose of getting more people to see their ads.

As an analogy I imagine two painters — one is an eccentric, pompous old man who spends 3 years per painting and demands of friends and enemies alike that they love his work. He sells very few, from his own home, and generally spends his time locked away trying to impress himself and others.

Another painter — younger and more financially minded — comes along and finds a template he can use to pump out thousands of paintings a year. He sells them for less but makes far more money because he’s on every corner. When Art Magazine asked both painters why they paint, the old man replied that, “Art is life.”, before rudely ending the interview to go back home and paint. The younger painter responded, “Are you kidding? I’m moving 4,000 of these things a year, and they all have my name on them!”

Don’t be confused — I dislike both for different reasons. But given the choice I much prefer backing a company that’s fundamentally tied to me being enthusiastic for my device and my experience vs. one that sees the entire game as a means to an end. ::

Google is releasing a phone soon (possibly Q1 2008). It’s going to run on HTC hardware. It’s going to be sick. This we know.

Google vs. Apple. I don’t see anyone else in this game right now. Everyone else will be trying to catch up via imitation. A few points/predictions:

• The overall web service integration (Google services, obviously) is going to be extremely tight. Camera -> Picasa. Compose Document -> Google Docs. Local email app -> Gmail. Etc. So they’ll present a nice “local” interface (think Gears), but the backend will tie directly to their online services.
• I see GPS/map integration like we’ve never seen. I think this is going to be their primary application. Not just better maps — better GPS with the maps. It’s going to be like the movies for the first time, i.e. more real-time and smooth.
• I see them doing some serious online syncing. All settings, contacts, etc. all being on the server side. Backing up will be automatic and transparent, and restoring will be almost as seemless as soon as the network recognizes it’s you.
• Google Docs is going to be insanely nice. It’s going to be the first REAL implementation of word processing on a phone form factor.
• Their major downside is going to be not having the hardware slickness of the iPhone. So while the OS might be incredibly awesome, stable, and efficient — the overall feel will suffer compared to the iPhone package — especially after the iPhone update.
• I see cost being around $250-$350 — purposely way below iPhone.

Overall? Google will have the features that Apple wished they had — most of which will hinge on their strong web services presence. But Google will still envy Apple’s monopoly on lust.

The overall package of the iPhone (especially after the update) will make it VERY hard for people to leave it once they’ve experienced one. But the same will go for anyone who gets used to the features on the Google phone. It’s going to become a matter of which you get spoiled on first.

So, Apple will lower their entry point for the iPhone (the cheaper version) by at least $100 and try like hell to develop some web services that can compete. Google will grumble because HTC won’t make anything as elegant as the iPhone, and they’ll start looking for a hardware platform that can compete with the beauty that is the black marble slab.:

Time Since Last Full Charge Usage: 5 Hours, 53 Minutes Standby: 1 Day, 15 Hours

Call Time Current Period: 55 Minutes Lifetime: 9 Hours, 52 Minutes

EDGE Network Data Sent: 1.8MB Received: 13.4MB

…and I still have a bit of a charge left (roughly 10%). This is with considerable email and browser use. I’m quite pleased.

I’ve had my iPhone since launch and days one and two were very worrisome for me in terms of battery performance. The first day I only made it to around 5pm before my charge was gone (starting at 8am). The second day I made it to around 10pm.

But now — a few charges later — my battery life just keeps improving. Today I went a full 18 hours with moderate to heavy use of all features. I think the key is both how you have your phone configured during the day, as well as the quality of the charging process. Here’s what I suggest:

1. Reduce your brightness as much as you can tolerate. I personally find that about 30-40% of max is plenty for me, and that difference in output is significant.
2. Consider keeping WiFi disabled by default. You can always enable it when you find a hotspot and want to use it.
3. Use a bluetooth headset that turns off when not in use. The folding Motorola brands as well as the new Apple headset have this ability.
4. Try and run your device until it completely dies before charging, and use the AC adapter rather than a computer to charge up.
5. The battery charges faster when the radios are off. Rather than disable them manually, consider using the Airplane Mode feature, which will disable all three radios in one motion. If you need to receive calls while charging, just disable WiFi and Bluetooth.
6. If you haven’t done a full drain-to-maximum charge cycle yet, power down the phone and reset the usage statistics before you put it on the AC adapter. This seems to be helping zero out stats and allow the OS to display the fully charged icon.

These tips are definitely working for me, as I’ve gone from roughly 9 hours of combined use to over 18. Time will tell whether or not I’ve reached my maximum, but my suspicion is that I have not.

Comments welcome.:

Yes, Address Book.

The fact that the iPhone runs OS X and I can sync my contacts (with metadata) between my mobile device and laptop is invaluable to me. Sure, the iPhone looks nice and has some cool features and a wicked UI, but I have over 250 contacts and I like their associated pictures, multiple phone numbers, email addresses, and other information to be clean and current.

I can’t stand having that information get mangled in translation between platforms. If iPhone avoids this (which it sounds like it will) I’ll be happy with it despite almost any number of flaws. If it makes calls and does contact management well I’ll happily deal with any rev1 issues while waiting for rev2, and I think this may be the case for many others as well.:

Expect iPhone to succeed, but to do so mostly because it does the basic stuff really well.: