In June 2007, the world was eagerly awaiting a product that would turn mobile computing on its proverbial ear, the Apple iPhone. Comparisons between the days leading up to that launch and this week are inevitable, as we once again find ourselves anxiously awaiting a groundbreaking mobile product, the first Android-powered mobile phone, the T-Mobile G1 launching on Wednesday, October 22.
The makers of the “Google phone” – and the developers who hope to build apps for it – have had the opportunity to watch Apple over the past year, learning from their mistakes – and their successes. One of those lessons learned? People want apps. Let’s take a look at three of the first Android apps out of the gates.
The alpha release of BooRah Restaurant Search promises to deliver the power of the BooRah restaurant review service – which has been reviewed favorably by ReadWriteWeb – to the Android platform, giving G1 users access to search user reviews, types of fare, restaurant locations, and maps.
One of the leading streaming music services and a frequent subject of ours, imeem, plans to “make Android sing” with its streaming social music app that delivers the power of imeem’s user recommendations to the mobile platform. According to imeem, the app will have seamless integration between the mobile app and the imeem site.
Not to be outdone on the social front, MySpace has announced the MySpace Mobile App for Android which promises to bring a number of the site’s features to the mobile platform, including providing status updates, uploading photos, and approving friends.
App store drama rears its head
Getting apps to users right of the gates was clearly motivated by the hindsight of Apple’s reticence to do so. The Android team definitely made the right decision in that regard.
One of the mistakes that the G1 appears doomed to repeat, however, is the management of those applications in the Android Market, the distribution hub for Android applications.
Android Community reveals that the more than 50 apps which could appear in the Market have been whittled down to 13 lucky applications. According to Android Community, “many of the top applications that have been reviewed already will not be there.”
Will this initial selection result in the same turmoil it has for Apple? Or was this simply a means of staging the rollout of apps? The answer to that question remains to be seen.
Surely more to come
While we’re getting down to the wire, there’s still a lot of time before the G1 comes out on Wednesday. No doubt, this is just the beginning of the information we’ll be seeing on new Android apps. Stay tuned to ReadWriteWeb for the latest news as it becomes available.
MySpace Mobile image courtesy Android Community
