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Analyst: Android 'Ain't No iPhone,' Will Fail

Google's much-hyped mobile platform, Android, is set to make its big debut in the market in the coming months. Developers, execs, and analysts who've used it say it is going to bomb, and if it does, it is all Google's fault.

Man, oh man, I hope this is not going to be the case. A Yankee Group analyst has spent time with Android and said it just doesn't compare with Apple's darling device. For more reasons than one.

Richard Waters, at The Financial Times, said, "For Google, comparisons with Apple are turning out to be both inevitable and damning. If the iPhone has been a text-book case of how to develop and market a new consumer electronics product, Android is the opposite, according to industry experts."

Developers have been voicing complaints for months now about the Android SDK. Early versions of Android were rife with bugs and stability problems. Google recently offered up a more stable and final build of the SDK, but it may be too little too late for the first batch of phones planned by companies such as HTC. HTC is reported to be launching an Android phone sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Critics also are taking Google to task over the lack of a clear focus for the Android platform. Is it aimed at consumers, prosumers, or professionals? Will the horizontal integration of many different players create a cohesive experience for users, or one that is fractured?

At this point, Google and its partners have a lot to live up to. That's part of the problem with announcing something and then working on it for a year before it is released to the market. People build all sorts of expectations for something as exciting as a new platform launch. Google's partner, Apple, is not making things any easier by releasing a cohesive iPhone + iTunes + Apps Store ecosystem.

The good news is that the Android platform can and will evolve over time. Hopefully Android is successful enough (and appealing enough for developers) in the short term for it to stay around long enough to grow.

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