The Android Devices Blog

I found an interesting article today by someone who has already installed Android on the Nokia N810 and noticed the XMPP service that’s running on it. He compares that to the iPhone, where chat applications are only available through the browser (which makes you unavailable as soon as you switch to another site or application). Now my iPhone contract here in Germany doesn’t even allow me to use Instant Messaging, but I would find it very annoying to have to go into “IM mode” in order to use IM on my phone. It’s really something, same as email, that needs to be running in the background, showing me as available and prompting me for attention when necessary, to make it worthwhile.

There is hope that an open platform like Android won’t repeat the mistakes that Apple is making. If there is the same amount of hope that carriers will actually allow the use of really useful applications on their networks is a different question. But of course a phone that can actually make use of all these things will make it a lot more obvious that carriers are restricting what their customers can do to protect their revenue stream from ridiculously overpriced text messages.