Community Matters

My good friends at Google have done it. They’ve created a truly awesome phone.

I’ve only had the Nexus One for a day (it was waiting for me when I returned from a trip, yesterday) and must admit that I’m thoroughly impressed.

Is this the “iPhone killer”? I don’t know and frankly I don’t care. I never liked the iPhone and haven’t used one enough to really compare them.

Is this the best Android phone? Absolutely. Well, as long as you don’t have to have a keyboard. I know people who just cannot deal with touch screen input, those might prefer the Droid. Or they might not.

The thing about the Nexus One is that it is fast. Impressively fast. It’s testament to the fact that 99% of all phones have an insufficient CPU (and that definitely includes all iPhones – and the rest of the Android phones that I’ve played with). The experience of having a phone with a CPU that is actually fast enough for its software stack is quite amazing. And of course this immediately made me want to get my hands on an LG GW990 – a phone with a real CPU (Intel Atom) and an OS that I am somewhat partial to (Moblin).

But oddly even though I’m part of Intel’s Open Source Technology Center – no one is willing to get me an LG GW990… so for now I’ll enjoy the Nexus One, running a competitor’s CPU.

I think we’ll see the same development in phones that we have seen in PCs in the past. For the next few years Moore’s Law will bring us faster and faster phones – and we will wonder how we ever lived with the slow phone we had last year. That’s certainly how I’m feeling right now.

Thank you, Google. And don’t rest on those laurels, the Atom based phones are coming.