The way I see it : mobile communications

Here's an article that really shows the big difference between the implementation of cellphone technology from Apple and Google.

Apple has a tightly controlled application environment. You have to conform to their standards, and even then, your application may not make it to the iPhone application market. Then, if it does make it, it might still be pulled after it's hit the market and been downloaded.

Not so with Google. Their open-source implementation on it's admittedly clunky first-gen G1 phone will open their Google apps market to all developers. Instead of Google having the control, the holder of the phone does.

As many of you probably know, I'm not much on getting the latest & greatest tech the moment it comes out, mainly 'cause I'm not rich! But rather than being a Luddite, I just wait and watch. I'm terribly interested in these gadgets and I scour the nets to find the things that interest me.

So, right now, I don't have a smart phone. (It's not a terribly dumb phone, it just doesn't scour the net or do a lot besides alarms, tip calculator, text and make calls) Perhaps one of these days, not too far down the line, I'll have a mobile device that will have internet access, communicate in several ways with my family and friends, and keep me on schedule and productive, and all for under a hundred bucks with a monthly bill that's about half that.

Right now I'm leaning towards the clunky Google phone, because of the unlimited potential it has due to it's open-source philosophy. And that's the way I see it.