What the G1 needs to “see off the iPhone”

An interesting little rant at The Daily Telegraph lists the five features the Android-powered Google phone (known as the G1) needs to have to “see off” (that’s east London speak for “compete with”) the iPhone.

Those five requirements are, in a nutshell:

• “Lots of Google” — Google integration with everything
• “Entertainment” — a vague notion that the G1 needs video and music and stuff
• “Looks” — it must match the iPhone in terms of stylish design; I’d argue that this isn’t really a requirement. There are lots of people who value function over design and will gladly put up with the uglies if it means they get a cheaper smart phone
• “Online” — it must have a decent browser and push email; duh
• “Applications” — there must be an App Store

According to the pre-launch leaks and rumors flying around over the last 12 hours or so, most of that list is indeed present on the phone: Google everywhere, video player, an App Store-a-like, and so on.

So, yeah, a reasonable list of things that an iPhone competitor should be thinking about, but it misses out some other ideas. Such as:

• “Multi-touch” — one reason why people like the iPhone so much, from the moment they pick it up, is the multi-touch UI. It adds a great deal to the user experience and makes the phone more appealing. I’ve said it before: it makes people smile
• “Price” — much more than multi-touch, much more than any of the others, this is the one feature that I think G1 and its ancestors progeny (sorry, my mistake, see comments) will be able to compete on very well indeed. No matter how many smiles the iPhone generates, it remains an expensive choice. If the Android army can offer a good experience overall (not necessarily one that matches the iPhone feature-for-feature at all) but at a reasonable price, it will have customers lining up at the tills.

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