Really? I get the impression that this phone lacks a lot of the iPhone's polish... various sliding/pinching gestures, tilt to change orientation, sync with PCs... Of course, the G1 is playing catch-up, and not doing a terrible job -- it has some of the features the first generation iPhone lacked (and vice versa).
The real thing the iPhone loses is exclusivity. Now that they have some semblance of a competitor, will Apple make concessions to developers and customers to maintain their advantage?
The iPhone doesn't lose luster when it acquires imitators. Far from it. The release of Android is a big, free benefit for Apple's marketing.
The release of Android will inspire approximately 3e5 articles comparing the new phone with existing phones. And which is the existing phone that will be featured in every single one of those articles, cast (once again) in the role of the current gold standard for smart phones? It'll be the iPhone. Because stories with Apple in them are exciting stories. And because, from the market's perspective, Android is an obvious derivative of the iPhone -- except for the parts that are derivative of the Blackberry instead, like the hardware keyboard. (If RIM is lucky they might rate a mention in the fifth paragraph of these articles.)
There will now be a big P.R. effort to define the entire smartphone industry as an epic battle between iPhone and Android. Which can only benefit both platforms, because the amount of downside to losing a bit of marketshare to your direct competitor is more than compensated by the enormous potential upside of growing the entire iPhone/Android niche of the industry. Remember, iPhone may be a hugely successful product, but it's still only a tiny percentage of the installed base of phones. There's a lot of potential customers still out there. Customers that might be drawn in now that they have a range of iPhone-like devices to choose from.
The only way that Android would be a terrible blow to Apple is if it clearly and obviously kicked the iPhone's butt. But it doesn't. There will be a lot of little details that will lead some people to prefer one phone over the other, but there's nothing game-changing here that would cause me to abandon the iPhone. The big difference that folks here on HN notice is the openness of the software platform, but that might not actually be a competitive advantage -- and, if it does prove to be a huge competitive advantage, it won't be one for long, because Apple could eliminate it in fifteen minutes if they really wanted to. All it takes is a policy change.
that's all you have to tell ordinary consumers (read: high school teenage girls and college-aged folks who absolutely OBLITERATE text messaging services and would never buy a mobile phone without a keyboard).
as a phone, iPhone rates very poorly for two things: calls (poor reception, horrible battery life, etc.) and sms.
I can text reasonably well.. (aka - by sight while driving using T9). I don't know ANYONE who texts regularly with a QWERTY keyboard on their phone. Maybe it's just an australian thing? Certainly none of my teenage female cousins have one - nor people I catch a train with...
The real thing the iPhone loses is exclusivity. Now that they have some semblance of a competitor, will Apple make concessions to developers and customers to maintain their advantage?