Howard Stern Pimps iPhone Over Nexus One

Reading a brief review of Google's Nexus One on the air earlier this week, Howard Stern quickly turned on the self-proclaimed "superphone" maker by giving Apple it's due for their genius behind the revolutionary iPhone.

As Stern started reading; "Google has it's first superphone for what appears to just improve on older gadgets, namely the iPhone." Robin Quivers, the show's Producer interrupted by asking; "Well what's wrong with that?"

"What's wrong with it is that you wish somebody could invent something fucking new. Apple, you gotta hand it to 'em they're the ones that figured all this stuff out." Stern answers.

Stern's moment of clarity perfectly underscores the fact that Google, like so many others are still caught up in playing follow the leader, while huffing the fumes from iPhone's exhaust. The company has not produced authentic innovation with their replicant Nexus One smartphone. Not yet at least.

"The phone looks more like the iPhone than any other phone on the market." said Michael Arrington for TechCrunch.

While the competition is clamoring to best Apple's game changing device, it's the existence and evolution of the App Store that makes the iPhone a true superphone. That's a fact requiring no "super marketing" spin. 

With 21,258 thousand apps being downloaded per minute, the iPhone can be upgraded dramatically every few minutes as the user sees fit, through the empowering of over 100,000 third party applications. iPhone is just a better apps platform. It's all about the software dummies!

If you believe that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Google is clearly the front runner in bowing down to Apple's epic innovations with the iPhone and App Store juggernaut. First the Android software, then the Android Market and now a phone.

Is the Nexus One, a "superphone", really? Let's not mistake imitation with innovation. Stern gets it. (listen to audio below)

Howard Stern Pimps iPhone - Audio

[TechCrunch]

Comments

[iphonerulez]

The entire smartphone industry is sucking from Apple's iPhone teats. But that's OK. Everyone will benefit from it and they'll be able to get technology at reduced prices (due to the fact that everyone says Apple charges too much for everything) by other manufacturers. Apple certainly didn't invent everything about the iPhone, they just put all the pieces together and turned it into a successful product. The Nexus One now has the superior hardware over the iPhone and in six months the iPhone will have a hardware advantage over the Nexus One. That's just normal competition and keeps the progress flowing. I think Google put out a very good smartphone with lots of free software services. Nothing wrong with that.

I'm not sure how powerful a smartphone has to get, but I hope there is a high limit coming soon. A 1 GHz chip really should be enough for anything you need to do on a device that size. They need to start focusing on battery life. Apple also needs to do a little better in cloud support like giving away free online storage and synching capabilities apart from that Mobile.Me.

Smartphone platforms are moving along at a blistering pace far removed from the days where a new color or a slightly bigger keys won the race. Today's smartphones are simply amazing devices. As an Apple investor, I hope that Apple can keep the iPhone on top in sales and profits over the next few years.

[Roger Mercer]

"• Use the proximity sensor to shut off the screen when I drop the iPhone into my pocket. It can tell during a call when I've got it held up to my ear (and Google uses it to detect when to launch the voice portion of their search app) so why not use it for a simple thing like shutting off the screen when it's in your pocket or purse?"

The sensor does shut off the screen when you put the phone in your pocket. It's just that nobody knows this because it's dark in there and you can't tell. :-)

[iPhone Savior]

Great input Scott. Your balanced approach is spot on.

"Extend the battery life (or, better yet, make it removable)" is also at the top of my list of iPhone improvements.

Apple is really into the unibody concept which may not be changing based on where we see MacBooks going. Sadly.

Competition is good for everyone and it will light a fire for Apple. But before trying to brand your device as being a superphone, be really sure it actually is.

[Scott]

Another excellent post, Ray. Apple is the clear leader and others are merely following in their footsteps to avoid the land mines that cause so much technology roadkill. That said, I've seen both the Android and the Nexus and they are beautiful products.

As an unabashed Apple fan it comes as a surprise to people when I tell them that I hope the Nexus/Android platform is enormously successful. Just as the Blackberry, the Pre (remember that one?) and others purported to be an "iPhone killer" weren't, neither will the Nexus. In fact, the better it gets, the better the iPhone will become.

Competition is good for everyone and this new product should light a fire under Apple to fix some of the many things that can still be improved on the iPhone to make it a better product:

• Extend the battery life (or, better yet, make it removable)
• Different behavior in the dock (let me leave the screen on and have it automatically use the speakerphone when answering and then switch to the handset mode when I pull it out of the dock)
• Better MobileMe storage/syncing, etc. (hey, Steve, just buy Dropbox and make it over)
• Google Voice app - While this might be AT&T pressuring Apple it's silly to deny the existence of this service (especially now that Verizon has allowed it in a big way). I've developed my own workaround using the Google Mobile site but really, this needs to get approved.
• Use the proximity sensor to shut off the screen when I drop the iPhone into my pocket. It can tell during a call when I've got it held up to my ear (and Google uses it to detect when to launch the voice portion of their search app) so why not use it for a simple thing like shutting off the screen when it's in your pocket or purse?

There's more on the wish list but my point is that without competition these solutions will take longer to reach the market. Let's all hope that the Nexus - and other upcoming products - are successful, solid products so that they keep Apple's developers up at night.