March 16, 2009 by Tap
Paging through my copy of Stuff magazine again (old-school I know) this weekend I was confronted once more by the stunningly sleek and sexy new Toshiba TG01. With its 4.1 inch screen and at just 9.9mm thin, this phone is guaranteed to be a top seller based on looks alone. A few pages on and there was a write-up on HTC's new Touch Pro 2, another great looking (albeit chunky thanks to the QWERTY keyboard) piece of kit.
Now there's one problem with both of these phones (if you're an Android fan that is) – they run Windows Mobile. I have no doubt that the majority of phone users don’t know or even care what OS their phone is running and the T-Mobiles/Vodafones of this world know this. Just look at Vodafone's preview page for the HTC Magic – there is no actual mention of Android on the page (in the browser title and meta description only). Instead they try to pitch the Magic as sleek and stylish. The problem is that compared to the likes of the TG01 and Touch Pro 2, the Magic looks like a bit of an ugly stepchild.
But are looks really that important? I would say yes. Some phones sell because they are technically superior, but a lot of phones sell simply because they have the looks and the desirability factor. Is it possible that without the looks, the current Android phones will never be able to achieve the same degree of desirability (and sales) as their sexier competitors?
Come on HTC, we know what you're capable of, so what happened with the G1/Dream and the Magic? It's almost like the HTC Android team was ring-fenced and told to keep well away from the WinMo team. What's that all about? Yes Android has some specific requirements in terms of buttons an then there's the trackball (or chinwart as I like to call it) but surely all of that could have been incorporated into a better looking design.
That said, I can understand why maybe HTC didn't want to commit its best designs to a platform which, until now, has been an unknown and therefore a bit of a risk. Hopefully, based on the popularity of the G1 to date (and no doubt the HTC Magic from April), HTC will now commit its best and brightest designers to come up with some new designs for their next Android phone. I think it's time that we had a sexy Android phone don’t you?