It is generally not a good idea to buy the first version of any new product offering, especially when that product is pushing the technical state of the art, and is being offered by a company with little experience in that product's market. Thus, when I first purchased my Nexus One phone in early January of this year (shortly after its release), these concerns, as well as several others, were definitely on my mind. I came to this adventure well prepared, as I have been a 'power user' of a series of Windows Mobile based phones for a number of years. Yet media options on those devices never were never quite as good as what I came to expect from the Itouch which I also purchased. As a result, I continued taking both devices on trips,

Then, in 2007, my employer required me to abandon the Windows Mobile platform for improved corporate security, and I began using a BlackBerry. That offered me even less than Windows Mobile in terms of innovation, media, user experience, and application options, compared to what I came to expect from the Itunes store and its ecosystem. My choice of cellular service providers is also relevant here, as I've been on Tmobile for my family phones, and on AT&T for my work phone. As a result, I'm quite familiar with the shortcomings of both vendors, and their recent rollout of coverage and speed improvements on both of their networks.

Thus, when the Nexus One was released, I embraced it with my eyes wide open. While I believed it had both the physical device features and platform potential to give Apple, and its Iphone line, a real run for our money, I fully recognized that it would be very difficult to overcome the marketing and technical prowess that Apple has leveraged since the IPhone was first introduced. My interest in the Nexus One was primarily driven a desire to have a leading-edge device that would integrate well with the Google ecosystem, to obtain a device that had the potential to consolidate features from both my BlackBerry and my ITouch, and that would offer me clear cost advantages over what at the time was a quite healthy AT&T and Apple cost premium for their IPhone.

As I purchased my Nexus in early January of 2010, I promised myself that I would set aside enough time (six months, I decided) to form and capture my thoughts about how well the Nexus delivered on their quest to become a legitimate IPhone competitor, and to reflect on whether my decision and experience was positive, given the 20/20 hindsight I would have at that time. Of course, back then, I also didn't anticipate Google's abandonment of their direct sales channel for phones, the renegotiation and extension of Apple's contract that led to their Ipad launch (and extensions of AT&T's exclusive contract), or the updates to both the Iphone 4 and Android 2.2. These recent releases, occurring so close in time, provide important information about the vector of the development efforts for these two competing efforts, and what that suggests for current and future customers.

When I first began using the Nexus One in January, many of my favorite ITouch applications were not yet available on Android - no Kindle, Mint.com, Audible.com, or podcast applications were available that were comparable to what you'd be able to get from its Apple competitor. Luckily for me, since then, the Android platform has matured quite nicely, and each of these applications (as well as thousands of others) are now available on the many Android phones in service; in fact, each of these new Android application releases has clear advantages over what's available on Apple's IoS platform, and my phone is stuffed with functionality.

Similarly, while the Nexus support infrastructure was initially unacceptable, it has quickly evolved to be both responsive and trustworthy. While the support provided by HTC is still not yet quite on par with what you can get from an Apple Genius Bar, it has clearly advanced to the point that its no longer a risk to customers that it was when I first obtained my Nexus One.

Unlike Apple, who takes a cut from ITunes store purchases, Google's share of revenue from the Android Market's is more limited, since the majority of those applications are free. Instead, for the Nexus One, the ecosystem pulls revenue in from voice and data plans, and thus that revenue distributed primarily across the carriers and developers. Yet Google still realizes other benefits from the Android platform expansion, through increased placement of advertisements in the mobile space, and application purchases paid through Google Checkout, which both have both strategic and economic value.

New application development on Android now is outpacing the IoS for all types of applications, with the exception of entertainment and gaming. While the IoS has more developers, the Android release rate is increasing rapidly, despite the fact that there is little shared across the two platforms. This is likely because Apple's licensing agreements limit distribution of applications to Apple products (including the Ipad).

The concept of a perfect phone is likely to have many different characteristics for different types of users. Some of these characteristics will clearly be unrealistic, but for me, gaming is not even on my list. Simply put, I need a responsive, reliable, and expandable information and communciations appliance. AnandTech has set the standard for reviewing devices quite high high with their thorough assessment of the performance and features of the new Iphone 4. Throughout that review, the Nexus One is frequently used as the reference benchmark, and competes quite effectively in most of the comparisons. Given the availability of that comprehensive review, I thought I'd focus my own considerations instead on what I see as the remaining significant differentiators between the two platforms, and the service providers they were launched on. In doing this, I hope to give particular focus on those areas that I feel represent significant contrasts between these two offerings that were not discussed in depth in the AnandTech review.

First, I'll look at what I believe are real wins for the Android 2.2 family of smart phones. While many Android-based phones share these benefits, only those with the performance and memory features of the Nexus will likely will be able to take full advantage of this functionality. With this consideration, here are the real advantages that I believe Android 2.2 phones offer over the IPhone 4, based upon my first 6 months of usage of the Nexus One: 

• The User Interface - As a recovering Windows Mobile user, I'm not big on lots of buttons or menus, but I do like having more than the single 'home' key that Apple provides. I think the Android's phone buttons, while occasionally too sensitive on the Nexus One, meet the right balance for ease of access to all the phone's functionality (though these keys aren't always placed in the same place on different devices, an Apple cardinal sin).  Of all these buttons, though, the back button is the biggest time saver for me, and something that I would find it difficult to live without, now that I'm using it. I'm surprised that this feature has had such little public acclaim. The button allows you to easily jump back both within your current application to prior screens (or on the browser, to prior pages). But it also allows you to pop back to prior applications in a way that really enhances the multi-tasking environment. While much of the Android user experience is inconsistent, and will benefit from further iterations, in the case of this one innovation, I think they got things really right, and deserve a lot of credit for it. Similarly, I think there's no substitute for a trackball (though not all Android phones have them). The finger is great for many operations, but when it comes necessary to select and manage things smaller than the size of your fingerprint (such as when selecting a string of text), the finger doesn't work very well, even with Apple's cut and paste widgets. Finally, the notification system on Android - and the means it provides to jump between concurrent applications - is the best I've seen.
• Over the air updates - I can purchase an MP3 from Amazon and download it over the air. I can do the same with my Audible Books. My latest operating system update came over the air. Pictures and videos from my phone are automatically uploaded to Picasa. My RSS reader, Podcast player (Google Listen), and email reader synchronize with Gmail and Google Reader. What this all means is I no longer have to hook up my phone for daily mind melds with my desktop, like I had to do with my ITouch. That is a big productivity win for me. On ITouches and IPhones, hooking the device up is still a regular part of the experience, and something I really don't miss.
• Voice recognition - Google is utilizing the cloud more effectively than anyone to process voice commands and requests (you can say things like 'Navigate to Joe Schmo', or 'Map hardware stores', and get the options you'd like, while driving). This has two advantages: the Android capability learns how to do this voice recognition and searches more effectively over time (and these improvements over the last 6 months have been impressive); and it can make smarter guesses with my full search history, since it knows a lot about you. This also has one disadvantage, though: it doesn't work if cell coverage is poor. Luckily, you can always fall back on text input (if you're not driving, of course).
• Google maps - While many other platforms and phones have GPS support, none come close to utilizing the phone's location information as effectively as Google is doing. Location-based searches work well on Apple, but turn-by-turn navigation (with integrated street view) give Android a clear advantage that will be difficult for Apple (or other GPS providers) to overcome. A year ago, I purchased a $250 Garmin GPS device with over-the-air traffic. After 3 months, my Nexus replaced the Garmin in my car, as it exceeded the functionality and ease of use in nearly all categories (at least when I have cell coverage). The only shortcoming the Nexus has is its screen size - but with excellent spoken instructions (which pause music, Audible books, or podcasts), that doesn't matter much. More significantly, it appears to me that Google is uploading speed and route information from each of it's users in real time, aggregating it, and serving that information up to all other local users. Garmin (and comparable options available on IOS), instead rely upon traffic data obtained from public sensors in roadways; as a result, this information is less responsive, has more limited coverage, and provide far less value to me. The combination of Bluetooth-based voice recognition, location-aware searching, and wider street coverage of traffic will be very difficult for Apple to overcome.
  
• An open platform - Add-ons like Swype, a keyboard replacement for Android phones, highlights how new innovations are being introduced into the Android environment that aren't even considered on IoS, due to Apple's tight restrictions on their storefront. While just an example, Swype is a truly amazing text input device whose speed and accuracy exceeds anything available from Apple. While there's a small learning curve to use it, the benefits are truly amazing! While both platforms legitimately offer open source software options, and such software is serving an important function as creativity engines, the Android platform is clearly positioned to benefit more from this than Apple. However, these benefits may only be available to users like myself who enjoy tinkering with such new products, and tolerate the platform fragmentation and instability that can result.
• Experimentation - For my nickel, feature for feature, the innovations available from Google Listen, Google Voice, Google Googles, Open Spot, and Google My Tracks have no equivalent competition anywhere on the IoS platform today. Of course, my Apple friends and family could probably provide similar lists that I'm not even aware of from the IOS side. One thing is for sure, however - we all benefit from this experimentation and competition, as the best ideas eventually end up on both platforms. Going forward, however, I'm anticipating that you'll see such things first on Android.
• User-accessible storage and battery - You can buy a phone with a given level of removable storage at the time of your purchase, then upgrade that removable storage later, when higher density cards are released at lower cost. Steve Jobs doesn't want you to have that option - he'd rather lock you in early at his higher prices, and then have Apple benefit from lower memory costs over time. Of course, if you decide to switch phones, you can take this memory along with you, as long as your new phone shares the same form factor. Then there's the battery - you can buy a second battery for $25 from Google, when yours begins to age, or if you need to have one to swap in for long trips. Alternatively, you can buy an after-market battery with twice the battery life. But with Apple, older batteries and lower memory are a part of their justification to motivate you to buy a new device in two years. I'd rather have the innovations that are available be what drives upgrade decisions for me, not an old battery or memory that's too small. Then again, Apple clearly has the advantage today (as a result of more cycles of learning) to extend the life of the batteries they use - getting nearly twice the functional life than Android devices do.
• Flash 10.1 - Do I even need to talk much about this? I have to say that you don't know what you're missing until you go from not having Flash to having it again on a mobile platform. Despite what Steve wants you to believe, it will be a long time before there is more HTML5 content than Flash content - I expect longer than your next phone will last you. But on the other hand, many Flash sites don't really render all that well because there just aren't enough pixels on mobile devices. And Flash slows rendering speed (though the Nexus has the edge here, too).
• Cloud integration - Everything's backed up by Google-based web-accessible services, so your data is always out there, and migrating to a new Android phone is painless; since most other mobile platforms provide import capabilities from these Google services, that's a pretty compelling story, too. You can get a feeling for this experience with Apple's MobileMe, but only after paying for another premium service from Apple. 
• Tethering and wireless hot-spots - Apple has had this feature on the Iphone for about a year, but the constraint has been AT&T's, who wanted to figure out how to charge you for it. I'd love to see someone benchmark these two offerings from AT&T and Tmobile, hooked up to an identical laptop, in an area that provided good 3G coverage for both carriers. Through Tmobile, at least at present, there are no bandwidth limits, or extra charges, from their offering, which gives the Nexus a win here, at least if you're on that carrier.
  
• Cost - An unlocked Nexus One on Ebay is running about $425, down $100 from what I paid. When you buy an Iphone 4 from AT&T, you'll be paying about half of that price up front for the phone, and are requires a minimum data service, and will be locked in to a 2 year contract, after paying a new activation fee ($36).  But buying a phone like the Nexus One outright enables you to obtain service plans that are offered at considerably lower rates from Tmobile. For example, comparing AT&T's and Tmobile' similar family plan services for two people through BillShrink, Tmobile's is substantially lower at $79.99 per month, vs AT&T's at $93.99 per month (both before taxes). Over the two year plan period, and after taxes, these differences alone results in a savings of several hundred dollars. Tack on another $15 per month for tethering for AT&T, and you're up to easily a $500 difference -or more, if you go with the MobileMe service. Meanwhile, Tmobile has more minutes (1500 to 1400), many of these premium services for free, and provide better data plans (unlimited vs 2Gb) - all of which add up to a pretty compelling offer, if you're price conscious. Then again, there are plenty that are willing to pay their premium, as their success in the marketplace attests.
• Durability - Both carriers offer extended insurance coverage plans, which are the only real protection we have from accidental breakage. While the new Iphone is built from Gorilla Glass, concerns remain about its durability. I know this from my own experience - In 6 months, I've accidentally dropped my Nexus One now three different times from a height greater than 3 feet (with two of those occasions falling onto concrete). My phone has survived with only a slight scratch near the Power button. It's surprising to me we don't see more 'drop tests' of competing phones under controlled experiments. Volunteers, anyone? Maybe this will be the modern version of Russian roulette?
• Carrier service - Of course, if you don't get good service, it almost doesn't matter what that service costs. Luckily, both Tmobile and AT&T have made significant improvements to their service, though neither can yet duplicate the footprint that Verizon has (though at somewhat higher cost). In many urban areas, I've found that I often still find it necessary to fall back to WiFi when inside buildings - something the Android has only learned how to do gracefully under its latest upgrade. I suspect that for most individuals, it still will be necessary to try out either phone in your most frequent venues to determine which is best for you - though since both carriers are GSM-based, they provide international roaming advantages that other networks can't easily duplicate.
• Freedom - Tmobile is the only major service that allows you the freedom from being tied up in long term contracts. I like this freedom a lot - if a better deal arises any time, there is little preventing you to exploit it. Of course, this option requires you to by your phone up front, which not everyone will be able to do. Still, this freedom can be a great thing, since the next two years are likely to be a quite dynamic time in the mobile market. While you can buy your way out of other contracts, if you have multiple handsets, this can get pretty pricey. 

Despite the above advantages, the Android / Tmobile combination is still not quite as advanced as I'd like them to be:

• Display - When viewing in direct sunlight, the new IPhone, with it's retina display, appears to have a slight advantage over the Nexus One. Yet in nearly all other situations, under testing conditions, both sides can claim some advantages. Frankly,  I didn't think the display differences are significant enough to win anyone over either way. But it appears that it will take a newer display technology to finally conquer sunlight; and until then, we'll just have to continue to look for shady spots.
• Enterprise access - My company still doesn't consider either IoS or Android devices to be an adequate security risk. As a result, I'm considering using Google Voice for my phone number for business and personal calls (though the inability to port my existing number is the constraint to that). If I were allowed, i would also synchronize my company calendar and email, but my company's policies preclude that, too - something I don't see changing. Until one of these solutions achieves the enterprise credibility of RIM, I'm stuck with less than ideal corporate connectivity solutions. Still, for me, the benefits of carrying a single, effective productivity device have outweighed the inconveniences, but that certainly won't be the case for everyone.
  
• Music and media - Apple still clearly leads in delivering music on a portable device. The question is, for how long? Google will leverage their search strengths as they roll out new solutions for music later this year; hints of this appear in their recent announcements for a music discovery capability, which could evolve into a music download service. While it may be a while before we see a player with the polish of Apple's on an Android phone, Google's acquisition of Spotify is a tantalizing hint of great things to come!
• Ease of use - I would also still grant the IoS devices an advantage in this department. However, since this will be a major emphasis in the next Android release, this advantage may not hold much longer. 

While there are many new, and terrific, Android phones entering the market over the next few months, I still feel the Nexus One holds its own against these new entrants (though the Droid Incredible on Verizon is certainly an attractive combination). Since Google employees continue to use the Nexus One for dog fooding, I expect it will continue to be supported with new updates through at least the Gingerbread release later this year. And with that, Google will have pulled off quite an accomplishment, by keeping pressure on their competition through two technology refreshes! Not bad for starters, Google - too bad you are no longer selling them. You can count on us to still remain loyal.

Still, a lot can happen in the next year. The Iphone 5 may be announced, and may possibly even be available on a better carrier than either Tmobile or AT&T. New hardware - far better than the IPhone 4 - could be released (or alternatively, platform consolidation could occur!)  But unlike committing two years to AT&T and the IPhone, with the Nexus One, you can enjoy the best of both worlds - a world class phone today, without compromising your freedom of choice next year, or spending more money than you need to. So come join the Android experience (since the Nexus One lives on as the preferred Android developer phone) - before the lawyers stop us!