theregoesdave

Both Google and OpenMoko have been making strides towards an open source handset for the mass market, though they’ve taken drastically different approaches thus far. Google has been working with handset manufacturers and mobile carriers to launch the Android mobile OS, a daunting process for any nimble web company. Openmoko has opted to design their OS around their own hardware, which makes it easier to develop the handset, but much harder to use on the carrier networks.

So let’s take a look at how far each has come in the last year since I pleaded with Google to open source my phone. We’ll also compare the advantages and disadvantages of their approaches.

Availability

OpenMoko’s original model, the Neo1973 was made available, primarily to developers, late last year and they sold out this February. The OpenMoko Freerunner was just released on July 3rd of this year and the reviews are starting to come in. It mostly works on both AT&T and T-Mobile’s network, but there are some issues with AT&T SIM cards and the data plan has to be configured very manually.

Google’s Android platform was announced last November, but we still don’t have a mass market handset 8 months later. There are rumors that we should start seeing handsets during the 3rd quarter of this year, but no one has confirmed this quite yet. For Google to work through the current mobile ecosystem, they have to work with handset makers to write drivers to run things like different screens or keypads then work with the carriers to write a way to talk to their network. Neither of these are small tasks.

Price

OpenMoko’s Freerunner costs $399 and includes a touchscreen, GPS and accelerometers, but no keyboard which is a fairly important consideration for a lot of smartphone users. However, since they’re selling the handset without the service plans, they don’t have the benefit of being able to give discounted pricing based on a 2 year contract. This may work for hardcore open source enthusiasts, but it’s not going to get OpenMoko phones in front of nearly as many consumers.

Android will be running on handsets from established manufacturers that have relationships with the carriers already. There are a lot of rumors about a project with HTC to create the much rumored Dream handset. While this phone won’t be cheap, it will likely be subsidized by the carriers and sold through the traditional channels which could get Android handsets in front of a much larger audience.

Carriers

As we’ve seen so far, working with the carriers can be a double edged sword in terms of speed to market and pricing. It can also make a huge fan in terms of getting onto the carrier networks. The software in your phone that allows it to talk to the wireless carrier’s network is very proprietary. While the OpenMoko Freerunner will work on both the AT&T and T-Mobile networks, it requires manual configuration of the data settings which is likely a little too much work for your average user. It’s also resulted in issues with some AT&T SIM cards that OpenMoko developers won’t be able to get much help from AT&T in resolving.

Google has the resources to fun development of multiple handsets that could work on any carrier network. They can create phones to run on GSM networks like AT&T and T-Mobile or CDMA networks like Sprint and Verizon. By working closely with the carriers, they have the potential to create a much more seamless user experience.

Applications

Currently the OpenMoko has applications to handle most basic phone tasks like dialing, wifi and a web browser. They’re still perfecting the messaging application to handle Email and SMS and the Calendar. I also couldn’t find any GPS applications that are ready yet, though they do have a picture manager and media player up and running. Openmoko also has a smaller developer community, so it might be a slow burn to get the full smartphone functionality, let alone advanced applications unless they can co-opt Android applications.

Google, on the other hand, built a thriving Android application developer community by offering a $10 million dollars in prize money for their Developer Challenge. This strategy was the impetus for over 1700 applications developed for handsets that don’t even exist yet.

Summary

OpenMoko is the smaller, scrappier upstart in this market, though today they’re leading the pack in terms of truly open source handsets. This could shift dramatically the day Google announces a release date for the first Android phone in conjunction with one of the carriers. Either way, I think both companies are driving innovative offerings that put control back into the hands of users.

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