Betty la Fea of the mobile phone industry

Source: abs-cbnNEWS.com

Manila Bulletin technology editor Art Samaniego calls it the "Betty la Fea of the mobile phone industry."

In an interview on ANC's Tech Talk, Samaniego said the new T-Mobile G1 could be likened to the fictional character Betty la Fea because "it looks ugly but what's really important is what's inside."

The description, of course, is remarkably apt. At first glance, the G1 loses pogi points for lack of design originality especially when placed side-by-side to the more futuristic-looking Apple iPhone. It also loses points for functionality because the phone's "chin" or the bottom part of the handset actually hampers the right hand of the user when typing on the sliding QWERTY keyboard.

"HTC or Google could have raised the bar by making a prettier phone but they failed to grab the opportunity," says Samaniego.

Samaniego, however, points out that what the G1 loses in beauty, it more than makes up for in ease of use.

For starters, the G1 uses the same glass capacitive touchscreen first used on the iPhone, which discards the need for a stylus. It also discards the need for a password to open the phone by allowing the phone user to set a pass pattern to activate the phone.

The G1 is also the first mobile phone to use the Android Operating System developed by Google. Like any PC running the best of Google applications, the G1 has pre-installed software apps such as GMail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Talk and a YouTube video player.

Samaniego says the G1 also earns extra points for not creating folders within folders for the different apps, unlike some phones running on Windows Mobile OS.

He also points out that G1 users can download various applications to the phone for free unlike other phones where every additional application has to be purchased.

More importantly, he says more handset makers such as Sony Ericsson, Vodafone Group Plc and Samsung Electronics are embracing the Android mobile device platform.

According to Samaniego, the G1 phone could soon be made available to Filipinos by a local telco.

HTC Philippines country manager Mark Sergio earlier said the company is still considering various ways to market the Android phones once they are formally unveiled locally.

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