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The dust has settled around the reviews for the T-Mobile G1 and the phone actually received its first "update" in the form of a security-related patch last week. We'll get into that patch in a moment. First my impressions of how the reviewers received the phone and its capabilities.

A Good Start
The phone succeeds as a first go at an Android phone and all reviewers have said that OS revisions and Marketplace applications for the phone will make it truly shine in the future. There are complaints about the stock software loaded on it, but none too serious, and different reviewers appreciate the screen and slide-out keyboard differently. The phone design itself didn't overwhelm any of them -- something I'd agree with just from a visual point of view -- but the OS seemed quite fast and responsive and for a 1.0 OS in some cases beat out the usability of Windows Mobile, at least up until the recent 6.x releases of Windows Mobile. One big standout success on the phone -- something highlighted in the Engadget Podcast -- is the Notification system. It's something that is apparently extensible by Marketplace apps which should produce some very exciting innovations in the always-connected applications space.

The Network Is The...
The network is another matter. T-Mobile is just getting started on a 3G network of its own and with almost no 3G coverage west of where I live in not-so-rural New Jersey and even some very large areas of absolutely no data coverage whatsoever I'm not encouraged to sign a contract with them. They are very friendly to unlocking, however, so I'd be more likely to buy the phone outright, unlock it after 90 days, and walk to AT&T's network.

This of course begs the question: if I'm going to use AT&T -- and my general opinion of their voice network is that call quality is significantly poorer than Verizon's, backed up by JD Power & Associates call quality rankings -- why wouldn't I just get an iPhone and be done with it? Why indeed.

I'm sure I won't be the only person watching very closely to see how Google and T-Mobile decide to upgrade the feature set of the G1 as time goes on. Every last one of the software niggles mentioned by various reviewers seems like it can be addressed this way, and if they do keep Android moving forward to please critics and the general public it could make one worth owning by more than just the gadget crowd. That and Exchange support, even given that one would need to pay extra for it to cover a license from Microsoft.

Faults So Far
The biggest negative I can see with the phone so far happens to be a little-known fact that the device does not allow running applications from the flash memory card. The 70 MB of internal memory is the only place applications can run from. Brighthand reported on this but I haven't seen it picked up elsewhere.

There are other things about the phone I'd like to see improved: email deletion needs help, spoken turn-by-turn GPS directions would be nice, and a virtual keyboard for texting and data entry. The virtual keyboard is on the drawing board for inclusion sometime in 2009.

Google itself has also shown itself to have a fault or two with reference to this phone. Their reaction to the publicizing of a security hole in the browser has been less than grateful, but they have patched the phone. I'm glad it was billed as an update. This gives me hope that ongoing upgrades to the Android OS will be streamed to existing handsets and look forward to seeing more of them appear.

The Unique Marketplace
The Android Marketplace has gotten considerable press attention not just for what it is but for what it isn't. Currently it's all free programs -- developers can't sell things through it yet -- and to me that sounds like a problem for something you want the public to feel is finished and ready to go. It's also very open and while Google retains the right to kill an application that's abusing the network much like any wireless service provider, they're not going to stop developers from publishing most applications on the store the way Apple has done for competitive reasons.

The other interesting thing about the Marketplace is its business model. A $25 registration fee lets a developer write for it, which is a pittance. When things are able to be sold sometime in 2009 a full 70% of the sale price will go to the developer. After wireless taxes and fees the remaining 30% goes to the carrier. The carrier?! That's right, nothing goes to Google. So says CNet, and that shocked me to read it. It also may be the only way they could have gotten any carriers on board.

References:
Engadget, LinuxDevices, eWeek, CNet Reviews.