Somewhere in the caves of the internet there are people playing Robert Scoble Bingo - you can get a full house if you predict which technologies will float the former Microsoft tech-evangelist’s boat, without getting sidetracked by those he takes an avid dislike to.  Latest under Robert’s loupe is Android, and if you thought an open-source, Linux-based free platform together with $10m of financial backing for developers would make him moist around the pelvis then think again; he’s not impressed.

“I didn’t see ONE feature that will get normal people to switch from the iPhone. This comes across like something developers developed for other developers without thought of how they were going to build a movement” Robert Scoble

In comparing Google’s handling of the Android launch (including their SDK reveal yesterday) and Steve Jobs’ Apple iPhone announcement, Robert makes some good points.  He critiques their approach to developers - “uninspired” - and the “confused” UI of the reference model Sergey Brin and Steve Horowitz demonstrated in their preview video, with its multitude of drop-down menus, clicking metaphors and touching metaphors, saving particular scorn for the fact that Android handsets are still pretty much vaporware:

“[I] DO NOT TRUST THINGS THAT THEY WON’T SHOW ME WORKING” Robert Scoble

However, in comparing Android to the iPhone, Robert demonstrates a continuing miscomprehension regarding the platform.  Many were expecting, hoping even, for a gPhone: a Google branded handset that would sweep the playing field with some fancy left-field thinking.  What the Open Handset Alliance delivered instead was the ability to make many, many handsets, all with the same core DNA.  There are undoubtedly developers out there as dismissive of the reference designs multiple interface paradigms as Scoble is; with full access to the Android SDK they’ll be able to tweak it into whatever shape they prefer.  A better comparative model is Microsoft of course, pitting Android against Windows Mobile OS, but that isn’t such a juicy showdown.

Let me be clear: no, the brief exploration of Sergey and Steve’s reference toy didn’t exactly fill me with untold glee either, and yes it pales compared to Steve Jobs’ inimitable iPhone launch.  Why shouldn’t it, though; surely the projects are at very different stages?  If Apple had unveiled their cellphone before the software team had worked their OS X magic, before all the elements of the UI were so lovingly tied together, would we have come away elated?  I’m content to wait a while before pronouncing judgement, watching what fresh developments the Android Community come up with and biding time until the first real handsets emerge.

[via Crunchgear]