Something like Android or the iPhone with an App Store is what non technical end-users really want. What these users really want is to be taken care of. To use an automotive metaphor, they don't want to check their own oil and tweak their own ignition, they want to take the car back to the dealer and get their maintenance sticker. (At the same time, they like picking their own trim, color accents, stereo options, etc, but they also don't want to be bothered with doing the wiring themselves.)
I'm curious to know how this counts in the long run, specially given the fact that basically all 'open source mobiles' (openmoko being the latest example) have been extincted or never lasted long, so far...
I've been using the HTC Dream for a couple of weeks now, and it's been pretty good so far. I haven't had to break out any hacker-fu to get anything working. Mostly I just had to download apps to do stuff. The only complaints I have are that battery life is too short, especially when 3G is on, and I can't find an app allowing me to transfer files with bluetooth. If anyone can point me in that direction, I would be much obliged.
I've been holding off for a few months, waiting for other Android devices to come out. The way I see it, Apple just has the iPhone. Android can run on anything else.
