the onda

Now that the word is out that Google is going to launch a phone, and that it is not going to use whitespaces and flux capacitors to obviate the need for a carrier, we can all breathe a little easier. In fact, the general reaction should be "ho-hum," but not because you are going to have to pony up $530 for an unlocked version of the device, because for all intents and purposes, this is just another T-Mobile phone.

I've had two of the three major Android phones that have come out thus far: the G1, and the HTC Ion (or MyTouch as Sprint calls it). And while they (and the Droid) have fallen short in ways that the Nexus doesn't (specifically around something as simple as the diminished proportion of the on-screen keyboard), their true Achilles heel has been the lack of 3G functionality when operating with an AT&T SIM. Once you've had 3G EDGE just blows for web surfing— which is after all the killer app of these new devices.

And let's face it, T-Mobile in the US sucks— or at least in sucks anywhere I've ever lived in or traveled to. Their 3G network is okay— when you have coverage, which is hit and miss, and mostly miss if you are in any kind of a fast-moving vehicle (by which I mean anything that travels faster than a rickshaw).

But that is not the real reason why a phone that doesn't work on the AT&T 3G frequencies is a bonehead move. The real reason is because the only people that are likely to pay up for a phone sold through a new channel like www.google.com are likely to already have an iPhone and an AT&T SIM just begging to be set free. We are the folks who are likely to be vocal, we are the Eloi who are currently fielding the questions from the fat belly of mainstream adopters who see 2010 as the year they will move to some sort of smartphone.

The only thing I can think of is that there is something hard or expensive about the 3G AT&T frequencies. After all, Nokia made the same mistake with the N900 which I would have happily bought if I could run it on my regular SIM. But this is Google we're talking about. If I were them, I would have worried less about the koi-pond wallpaper and more about getting full GSM 3G frequencies in the US models, and maybe even a dual device like the Frankesteins RIM sells under the moniker "World Phone."

Otherwise let's face it— this is yet another T-Mobile Android phone made by HTC running Google software.