Hands on First Thoughts with the Nexus One

• Presentation and boxing of the device is fine, looks the part, the un-boxing drew oohs and ahhs from non geeks
• Easy to find and set up the home wireless network
• Moves you straight to a google account set up
• o2 iphone sim doesn’t seem to support any data connectivity 
• The SD card didn’t quite sit in the mount correctly which created several errors on the phone, until I reseated the SD card the phone created several error messages in applications and it also crashed the phone a couple of times.  now the SD card is in the correct position I have not had to reboot.

• The iphone feels slightly heavier and the screen is noticabley smaller
• Lack of multitouch not a major problem with N1 for me, zoom in and out works fine
• N1 touch screen seems a little more sensitive which makes the scrolling easier and a more comfortable experience
• With the iphone I can press the home button twice and the screen is enabled (easy) on the N1 I have to press the power button located at the top of the phone (bad) this small thing turns a constant activity from a one finger double tap into a Full hand maneuver (to be fair to the N1 voice search has quickly told me how to spell maneuver)
• The four soft touch buttons take some time to get used to and they are central to the operation of the phone
• I don’t think the ball is central to the operation of the phone and should be removed, it seems an un-necessary nobble
• I haven’t had a great time to spend with the virtual keyboard yet but first impression is that the iphone keyboard feels easier to use. This may very well be an unfair comparison to make at this stage as I have spent many hours learning to use and adopt the iphone keyboard.

Good Points:

• Easy access to Android app market
• Voice enabled apps get an early thumbs up
• Open android marketplace seems to encourage innovation (beebplayer app is fantastic)
• Camera is great
• Google maps is much better on N1.

• Can’t edit google docs from N1, this should be enabled from the get go
• I want apps specified, optimised for N1, the flip side of an open Android apps market and multiple devices/android OS versions meants that you have to scroll through lots of apps that don’t seem relevant to for droid etc
• Quite a few software hang ups already, quite a few forced app shutdown and one total reboot (related to SD card that was not installed, no such problems after the SD card was 
• Still waiting for flash…coming soon in H1 2010 we are told 
• Fragmentation of android infects the app market, creates confusion and possibly dilutes the experience
• 4Gb memory card is a poor effort compared to the iphone gs 16Gb.

Lack of itunes:

• I use itunes every day for managing my music and podcast downloads.  The N1 has no comparable application, a couple of applications (Google Live and Doubleswitch) attempt to fill the void but they aren’t really fit for purpose yet.  Google Live shows promise but is a Google Labs project and it looks that way at the moment.  This is a big hole for me and will prevent me from switching to N1 for the time being.
• No google voice for the uk yet…come on Google (I do have a Ribbit account so will check that out over the next couple of days).

2010 UC thoughts

• Industry
  • Customers will continue to ask for greater UC interoperability and the vendors will continue to under deliver
  • Towards the end of 2010 the growth in Enterprise video will be recognised as a significant challenge for IT departments
  • To cope with bandwidth demands IT departments start to consider and migrate from MPLS to Internet based networks
  • (Bad) Enterprise IT shops will continue to invest time and effort in defining what cloud computing is without delivering to their customers/users.  This does not mean cloud based IT will diminish, far from it IBM, Google, Microsoft and Cisco will collectively sell large numbers of cloud based software.
  • Fortune 500 will continue to play catch up with their Enterprise mobile strategy – blackberry, iphone, droid, windows systems are creating mass confusion within the Enterprise mobile segment and the Nexus One will only continue to add to the need for a strategy that encompasses a multi software, multi device approach
  • It will be the year of touch, multiple tablets will be released in the consumer space and this will inevitability flow into the Enterprise
• Google
  • Chrome OS, Chrome, Apps and Android will dominate the headlines and start to register on the Enterprise strategy and product road maps
  • Search revenue will continue to fund Google’s push into the Enterprise UC market
    • Challenges
  • Can Google integrate their Apps into a mature Enterprise offer
  • Will Google be able to develop a service and channel offer that large scale enterprises can have confidence in
  • Can they find the skills and experience that enables Google to compete in the Enterprise market
• Microsoft
  • OCS 2010 to launch in Q4
  • Bucket loads (millions of seats) of BPOS will be sold in 2010, predominately driven by Exchange and Sharepoint with OCS seen as a nice to have.
  • Plenty of windows7 will sell which will help drive further OCS sales
  • The new OCS 2010 client may attempt to take the sting out of Google Wave and Live Meeting will be on the way out
    • Challenges
  • OCS 2010 launch requires significant channel investment by Microsoft – if they want to complete in the entire UC market they have to bulk up their experience within the voice vertical
  • Customers will continue to challenge MS to deliver the latest OCS features on the BPOS platform
  • Will Tandberg continue to support OCS?  If not, expect a large hole in the OCS video portfolio that will have to be filled
• Cisco
  • Cisco will continue to play catch up in UC, which may take another 2/3 quarters to work out but they will invest and eventually get it right
  • Beginning in Q2 Cisco will launch a first salvo in the UC space with CUCM 8 and in Q4 will launch a second salvo with webex email/conferencing etc
    • Challenges
  • Rationalize their UC product set – Cisco currently have too many products and too many teams  don’t seem to communicate that managed to generate another 60 products in Q4 2009. Customers want to reduce complexity and wish to purchase a consolidated product set (Free advice to Cisco label all your voice/video capabilities including CIMA, CUMA, CUPS et al simply under CUCM)
  • Its not about phone numbers any more.  Simplicity of intra and inter company contact facilitated seamlessly by presence, instant messaging, voice and video.  When I email someone today I don’t need to know their IP address, it would be great if i didn’t have to remember a plus ten digit number
  • Understand when and where cloud based offers are relevant for their product set and again consolidate the offers
• IBM
  • IBM will continue to develop a strong set of software products and continue to win service and consulting based business
    • Challenges
  • Can they stop the shift away from Notes to Exchange
  • Can they win a major customer away from any of Microsoft’s UC product set
  • Does middleware really work in the UC world