G1 Android phone is only half 'open' with T-Mobile lock-in

Users curious, but don't see Android in the enterprise

Brant Castellow, regional sales executive at Correlagen Diagnostics, said his initial impression of the G1 is that "it looks a little quirky from the photos I've seen and not that sophisticated." He said that with Google's involvement, he expects it will work well, but he questioned with so many Google applications integrated into the device, "won't they have a tough time capturing the business user like me?"

Castellow uses an iPhone 3G for a variety of business functions, but said he hopes to check out the G1 when it becomes available.

Jorge Mata, the CIO at the Los Angeles Community College District, said the G1 will give Google a "strong first salvo" in the "Clash of the Titans" scenario that is building between Apple, Google and others. "The openness is a great thing," Mata said in an e-mail.

Mata said Apple's approach, especially tying the iPhone to AT&T, could eventually backfire for Apple. Exchange support and enterprise deployment tools are needed before there will be corporate adoption of G1 or Android phones, he added.

Still, Mata said the college district plans to support the G1 as soon as it is available, and said the Qwerty keyboard and access to Google Apps will make it a useful device for online discussions that are popular with students. "Think unified communications on this phone with productivity in the cloud," he said.

"This [G1] phone is not as sexy as the iPhone, and it does have a certain geek charm, but you should expect this to change in the near term," Mata said. He predicted the G1 will erode sales of Windows Mobile devices and BlackBerries before it starts to erode iPhone sales.