Do AndroidGuys Dream of Google Phones?
Hollywood Newsroom is now Buzz Newsroom! Visit and bookmark our new site. Buzz is bigger and better, including sports, world news, gadgets and the entertainment news that you're used to. Same staff, just more stuff! Why Fark, Drudge and Huffington when you can Buzz!?There are many well-known blogs that track developments in the mobile phone industry, from the Boy Genius Report to mocoNews.net.
But sometimes it’s the little guys that are more interesting. One such blog that caught my attention in recent weeks is AndroidGuys, which has chronicled Google’s year-long effort to bring to consumers a mobile phone powered by the company’s new Android software.
AndroidGuys was one of the first sites to post drawings of what the phone would look like. And it is now predicting that the first Android phone, built by Taiwanese handset maker HTC, will debut next week at the wireless industry’s trade show in San Francisco under the name G1.
So who are these guys and do they know what they’re talking about?
Turns out they live in Ohio and are two employees at wireless carrier T-Mobile, which will be the first wireless carrier to offer the new phone.
You’d think that Scott Webster, a sales representative, and his co-founder, Jamie Hunter, a store manager, would have an insider’s view. But Mr. Webster said his bosses have never asked –- or helped — to put information on the site. “We get nothing from the company,” he said. “It’s not like anyone is handing me a folder saying, ‘Hey, here you go.’”
Instead, he said, they get most of their tips from developers and others who are as interested in Android as they are.
Their tidbits attract ranks of the Google-curious. Last week, the site had about 100,000 visitors, Mr. Webster said, up from about 10,000 a month ago.
Google and its partners certainly pay attention to the site. In July, Mr. Webster got an e-mail from Jake Orion, a Sprint Nextel executive, who wanted to talk about Google and Android. (Sprint hopes to offer a phone with Google’s Android software next year.)
Mr. Webster said he interviewed Mr. Orion via e-mail. Mr. Orion suggested Google needed to be more pragmatic in its approach, particularly when working with carriers. Later, after the interview was posted, Mr. Orion contacted Mr. Webster and asked him to take the interview down, saying his comments had ruffled feathers at Google. Mr. Webster complied. “I told Jamie, ‘I’m not going to go to bed thinking I lost this guy his job,’” said Mr. Webster.
- from NYtimes