Android on AT&T

by Chris Moor
tagged Android, apple, AT&T, backflip, Verizon

Why would you want to do that! Especially if the Motorola Backflip on AT&T, is anything to go by.

The problem seems to stem from AT&T exclusively having the iPhone. People has thought that Verizon was going to be bad for Android but as it’s turned out, Google and Verizon have now become very good friends, with Verizon letting their customers have the whole 9 nine yard when it comes to Android.

Looking more at the Backflip with AT&T, it was launched with Android 1.5, even though when it did ship in March, Android 2.1 was readily available. AT&T have also decided that you not allowed to install non Android Market apps, which is a very strange thing indeed and resembles the approch taken by Apple and their App Store. They have also disabled Google search and replaced it with Yahoo! and also they don’t allow you to remove the AT&T apps that come preloaded with the device.

So with much criticism over this, AT&T have recently announced the HTC Aria but again are restricting customer to only installing apps from the Android Market. While it’s good to see more Android phones on AT&T, anyone holding out for something like the Nexus One or something at the top end of Android phones will be waiting! With their exclusivity agreement with Apple, they don’t seem to want to release a phone that could rival that of the iPhone, putting their relationship with Apple at risk.

With the recent gains made by Android, you would think that they would be planning for when Android becomes more popular or when other carriers start selling the iPhone. But they seem to miss this altogether.

» See more articles by Chris Moor

Categorized as Android Carriers, Android News, Android Phones, Android Software

Comments

Shane

As much as we love Android, it will never gain traction in the mainstream with grandmas and soccer moms the way the iPhone has. The UI on the iPhone is far more simple for most non-techies.

So ATT will ride that gravy train until the last day. Android will always be the phone of choice for us tech blog readers, but that’s peanuts compared to mainstream market Apple targets.
http://www.shawnclover.com Shawn

“anyone holding out for something like the Nexus One or something at the top end of Android phones will be waiting”
Come on guys, the nexus one has had an AT&T version for months now. I have one.
Dave

Shane
I agree that the UI on the iPhone is simple and for most people with the don’t make me think attitude it works. The problem for a lot of people out there is the lack of flexibility the locked down UI model provides. If you look at statistics more then 50% of all iPhones are jail broken so the user can gain additional software that is not provided for the iPhone through the appstore . Don’t me Wrong I like Apple and their computer products I own two Macs. When a company try to corner the market on a product, then tries to defend it’s market share, and stifle innovation through litigation we have to start looking at them a little more suspiciously. It looks to me that Microsoft of the 90′s has reinvented itself and we now have to call that company Apple.