I almost had a Dream

So on Sunday i went over to the Hello! shop at Comcentre to check out the latest smartphone. It's the HTC Dream which is the first mobile smartphone to be powered by Google's operating system.



It was pretty tempting to upgrade to a new phone with all the new techie stuff and all that are available. Somehow I was lured by the notion of the phone going for only $38. I was expecting a crowd at the shop during the promotion on saturday and sunday. But I suppose HTC Dream isn't as enticing as the iPhone when it was launched here back last year.

But I guess it's rather true. I had a chance to play with a display set in the shop. It's quite a novelty having the keyboard (at least for me) and the keys weren't small and narrow to use. The rest of the hardware is nothing new though. The basics nowadays for a typical smartphone contains the usual bluetooth, Wifi, GPS, camera (a 3.2 megapixel one), etc. Yeah the hardware is good enough for me. However, what got me thinking was actually the software that were provided. Considering it's a Google property, naturally the calendar won't work with Outlook. And this means I'll need to manage my calendar with another application. And there isn't any document software in the default programs. Well, considering there is a keyboard, I reckon I would fire up the Word equivalent applications rather frequently if I have the phone. But anyway, such apps would be avail in the e-shop for downloads in the future. The sounded quite like what Apple is doing for the iPhone, ie, putting up the apps in iTunes for the users to download.

I suppose Google is heading this direction too with this new OS of theirs, lovingly named as Android.

So my conclusion that evening? I figured I can still wait for the next Android phone to be avail in the market. Also wait for more apps to be avail before getting such a smartphone. Besides, $38 for the phone is only valid if I signed up with the highest phone plan which provides me 2GB of data usage per month. If I ever did choose that plan, I would be blogging from my Dream henceforth. And not to mention watching Youtube all day from my phone. :-)