Back in August I posted about Helio being acquired by Virgin Mobile closing its doors and felt that in the long run it would be a good thing for users, since the cool of Helio’s design would finally match the cool of the Virgin’s mobile packages.
After seeing the G1, I realized that Google needs to call Virgin Mobile and discuss licensing opportunities; specifically to get Helio’s Ocean 2. The G1 design is bulky and doesn’t even look like one cohesive unit. Very disappointing and yet not surprising. Virgin did announce that they were postponing the release of the Ocean 2 until it is “right”. It’s now due out in 2009.
This partnership would allow Virgin & Google to corner the market quality:
- Hardware from Helio
- Software from Google
- Data Plans from Virgin
Google’s image would really benefit from this perfect storm. They have mastered the “painfully useful” with things such as Google Maps & Earth and are very forward thinking in regards to philanthropic endeavors but fall short when we think who has the best designs. Pretty sure their goal is not to be Apple and yet it wouldn’t hurt to work towards better design. (I still think they’ll buy Apple some day.)
