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Cellphones Businesses Communications Google Handhelds The Internet Hardware

T-Mobile May Offer Free Gmail Data Access On G1 Phone 71

Posted by timothy from the if-the-trial-balloon-floats-up-the-flag-pole dept.
An anonymous reader writes "AndroidAuthority.com is reporting that T-Mobile is considering putting free ad-supported Gmail access on its T-Mobile G1 smartphone — no data plan required. The G1 launches in New York tomorrow and is the first device to hit the market that uses the Linux-based Android OS that is backed by Google."
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T-Mobile May Offer Free Gmail Data Access On G1 Phone More

T-Mobile May Offer Free Gmail Data Access On G1 Phone

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  • Does anybody have any hard data on availability? I have seen several sites state that there will be phones available this week for existing customers, but nobody at T-Mobile seems to know anything.
    • I think on the radio they said the HTC dream? phone will be available tomorrow. I guess at T-Mobile stores..... Not sure though so.....
      • Yeah, T-Mobile is calling it the G1. I've called two stores and T-Mobile corporate, and nobody knows anything about any phones being available until October 20, not even pre-orders, which I've seen several rumours about starting this week as well.

  • According to Fortune, such a plan would not come without risks to T-Mobile. T-Mobile currently charges for data access, and data access fees have been becoming an increasingly large part of T-Mobileâ(TM)s quarterly revenues.

    How much of the cut would they get for the advertising? I suspect that they might be better off overall by the attraction of providing a free service and also getting revenue to cover at least part of the costs.

    Good luck competing against the iPhone though... the world is held in awe by Steve Job's line of shiny products, never mind the monopolistic policy of banning apps that "compete" with its own services.

    • Re:Is it really that much of a risk? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by vux984 ( 928602 ) on Monday September 22, 2008 @07:14PM (#25112171)

      How much of the cut would they get for the advertising? I suspect that they might be better off overall by the attraction of providing a free service and also getting revenue to cover at least part of the costs.

      Yawn. I don't want adware on my phone. I don't want it at all. And the last company I want to give more information to is Google. They need more competition.

      Good luck competing against the iPhone though... the world is held in awe by Steve Job's line of shiny products, never mind the monopolistic policy of banning apps that "compete" with its own services.

      Amen. Seriously, why the hell can't another company put out a product that beats the iphone?
      I don't even care if it costs more, just do everything the iphone does, do it just as well (meaning the clean intuitive ui, and smooth performance (all the other phones in its class lag and jerk and otherwise just clunk around), and dump the Apple lock-in and ridiculous restrictions.

      • Amen. Seriously, why the hell can't another company put out a product that beats the iphone?
        I don't even care if it costs more, just do everything the iphone does, do it just as well (meaning the clean intuitive ui, and smooth performance (all the other phones in its class lag and jerk and otherwise just clunk around), and dump the Apple lock-in and ridiculous restrictions.

        Because even if they did that, they still wouldn't beat the iPhone. Apple is an unstoppable marketing machine. One need look no further than the various attempts to beat the iPod at its own game to realize this.

        • Re:Is it really that much of a risk? (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Lemmy Caution ( 8378 ) on Monday September 22, 2008 @07:59PM (#25112661) Homepage

          There is a big difference between mp3 players and mobile phones. I'm willing to give up a little functionality for some glitz and fun on an mp3 player. I am willing to give up some glitz and fun to get more out of my mobile phone.

          I have been thinking about getting an iPhone G3, but have held back due to concerns about tethering and general freedom/openness. I am already a fairly content T-Mobile customer, and wasn't really looking forward to switching to AT&T.

          I agree that the HTC Dream/G1 is unlikely to take more than a few percent of the iPhone's current customer base away. I think it may, however, staunch the growth of that customer base, and take a good slivver away from the Blackberry, as well.

          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by morgan_greywolf ( 835522 )

            There is a big difference between mp3 players and mobile phones. I'm willing to give up a little functionality for some glitz and fun on an mp3 player. I am willing to give up some glitz and fun to get more out of my mobile phone.

            Have you been to a mobile phone store recently? Listen to the people checking out the phones. The first thing they say when looking at phone they might like to buy is "I like the way this one looks!" I remember an exchange between one couple:

            Him: "Look at this one!"
            Her: "Meh. I like this one."
            Him: "But this one does more."
            Her: "But I like how this one looks."

            This exchange is not atypical at all.

          • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

            by Anonymous Coward

            I have been thinking about getting an iPhone G3

            Me too, when do you think it'll be released? The current second generation iPhone runs on 3G networks, I bet this rumored G3 one will use some sort of satellite.

          • Wait until next spring when the AT&T exclusivity deal is done and over with - you might see the iPhone everywhere then (except Verizon (fscking CDMA) grrrrrrr ).

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mdwh2 ( 535323 )

          Just because the Ipod was a successful product, doesn't mean that all Apple products are or will be. By that logic, any mobile stuff that Microsoft put out should be should become the dominant platform, right?

          Moreover, there is no need to "beat" the Iphone, because the Iphone has yet to beat the other phones already out there. It's just yet another phone.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by jipn4 ( 1367823 )

        Amen. Seriously, why the hell can't another company put out a product that beats the iphone?

        In part, because a big part of what makes the iPhone simple is that they cut out a lot of important functionality.

        The Mail application, for example, is easy to use, but it's quite tedious.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by vux984 ( 928602 )

          In part, because a big part of what makes the iPhone simple is that they cut out a lot of important functionality.

          The Mail application, for example, is easy to use, but it's quite tedious.

          Precisely. So why can't a company release a simple device like the iphone, with limited simple apps like the iphone, where the masses will drool over it.

          Yet, instead of creating a stupid locked up app store that arbitrarily KEEPS the iphone limited, users who WANT or NEED more features can install them, or even develop cus

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mdwh2 ( 535323 )

          Smart phones with a lot of functionality cut out have existed for years - they're called phones.

          They also have the added bonus that, due to not including this functionality, they're a lot cheaper as well as simpler. I'm not sure why lacking functionality on the Iphone is touted as a good thing, when you have to pay extra for it!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by CrkHead ( 27176 )

      Not everything needs to be an iPhone killer. Let me use myself as an example. I've thought about getting something I could check my email on, but frankly I'm not sure if I'd ever really bother with it. Now, not only would I have to drop a bit more on a phone I'd find myself paying more for the contract.

      So, if something comes out that looks usable, gets some decent reviews, and isn't that much more out of my pocket I'd be likely to get it. Now, I may find that I can no longer live without email on my

  • market opportunity (Score:5, Insightful)

    by crayz ( 1056 ) on Monday September 22, 2008 @07:13PM (#25112163) Homepage

    You could use gmail as conduit for other data. e.g. email a URL to gmail, some server-side app checks the mail account, loads the page for you, and sends it back in a reply email. You could presumably also have an Android app that hides the mechanics of this to allow you to just load web pages or other data through gmail, free of charge

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by JeremyBanks ( 1036532 )
      Though incredible slowly...

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        "Waaa waaa waaa, I want my data now."

        Kids today.

        I remember when I had to use bitftp to download the sources to empire from simtel20.

        Get off my lawn!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sparr0 ( 451780 )

        Incredibly slowly? I have surfed the web with latency times measured in *HOURS*. Thank god for tabbed browsing. Waiting 5-10 seconds for the turnaround on an email would hardly be slow at all.

        • I have to ask: How did you manage latency that long? What sort of setup were you using?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Sparr0 ( 451780 )

            An intermittent connection, due to a long term power outage. My laptop worked fine, but without power I had no internet access. I picked up a connection and swapped out my laptop battery for a charged one each morning and evening on the way to refill our propane tanks. I used that short time to load every page that I had queued, and the time in between trips to read all the pages I had loaded (dozens) and queue new ones.

    • My thoughts exactly, although it doesn't need to be marketing based. Many years ago there were a number of locations on the Internet that would accept requests by email and email back the requested information. This ranged from file transfers to web pages. No marketing was involved, just the overall internet philosophy that information wants to be free and the realization that some people at the time had email access but not complete Internet access. I remember dialing into an email server (not a full Inter

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Will you shut up, please. They're still evaluating the idea.

    • Links (Score:2, Interesting)

      by isBandGeek() ( 1369017 )
      Source [cta.int]

      Your email message should look like this:

      TO: www4mail@kabissa.org
      CC:
      BCC:
      SUBJECT:

      GET http://ictupdate.cta.int/ [cta.int]


      Simply replace http://ictupdate.cta.int/ [cta.int] with the address of the web page you want to read.

      Web-to-email servers

      The email addresses of the most popular web-to-email servers are listed below.

      www4mail@kabissa.org
      www4mail@access.bellanet.org
      www4mail@wm.ictp.trieste.it
      www4mail@unganisha.idrc.ca
      text@PageGetter.com
      page@grabpage.org
      www@web2mail.com

    • Checking webpages through Gmail? Really?

      That is a a ridiculously bad idea. I understand the appeal of getting data for nothing (i'm paying $30/month for my useless data plan) but the method is just too limiting to be worth a damn.

      Just the way it is. Anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't thought it through.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Mike89 ( 1006497 )

        Just the way it is. Anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't thought it through.

        No, anybody who thinks it's useless hasn't thought it through. I used to get free email access on my phone. So what did I do? Wrote up a script which sends me an email with each Slashdot story's summary. Not incredibly useful, but I find myself with 10 minutes every day (usually commuting) where it's just me and my phone, so I read them. Then when I get home, I can check the comments if I want. Also, if this service allows attachment

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Halo1 ( 136547 )

      That's exactly how I ftp'd during my first steps on the Internet, when all I had was a dial-up account with email access. FTP Mail [tripod.com], aka everything that's old will be new again...

  • Will you pay for the app background data use and email content as well the ad bandwidth / web site links in them?

  • My golden-age of mobile internet (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Frohboy ( 78614 ) on Monday September 22, 2008 @07:37PM (#25112421)

    If they do offer this service, I see potential for a much-improved version of my great experience with cheap mobile internet access seven years ago.

    Back then, a lot of mobile phones didn't offer graphical web-browsing. My phone at the time (some Samsung of some form) was purely text-based, but Telus (in Canada) offered a $2/month unlimited email option.

    So, I signed up, and after the novelty of being able to check my email anywhere wore off, I began itching for more information.

    Since Telus would still charge me 50 cents for Canada411 lookups, the first thing I did was write an email gateway for canada411.com (which was probably still canada411.sympatico.ca at the time). I had email to my domain set up to go to my home computer, and directed all email to services@mydomain directed through qmail to go to a Perl script.

    If the subject was "Canada411" (since Telus allowed me to store various preset subject lines), it would then parse the body as lookup parameters (Last name, First name, City, if I recall correctly). Then it would email me the results in plain text, after doing some web-scraping.

    Later on, I added some more "services", like dictionary lookups, recipes, university course schedules, etc. I could even list the current Slashdot headlines if I wanted (in retrospect, since RSS was already around, a basic email-based RSS reader would probably have been more generally-applicable).

    Nowadays, with HTML email being the norm for smartphones, you wouldn't even necessarily need to do the web-scraping (which is what ate up most of my development time).

    With email-based web-browsing, you can get what you want, but it takes a certain amount of patience and ingenuity.

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      With an OS like Android, you could easily build a system to allow transparent transfer of data through email, too

  • I know it's slashdot, but... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Ascoo ( 447329 ) on Monday September 22, 2008 @07:41PM (#25112459)

    Did anyone here read the CNN/FORTUNE article that the Android Authority article referred to?

    Where in the original article does it actually mention T-mobile/Google will be using ads?

    The author of the Fortune article states:

    Should T-Mobile decide to offer free Gmail access, it would be seen as a big counter move to Research in Motionâ(TM)s (RIMM) BlackBerry e-mail service, which costs $15 a month extra. And if telcos embrace Googleâ(TM)s ad-supported free e-mail, it could help drive Googleâ(TM)s ultimate aim to spread its successful desktop advertising business to mobile phones.

    He said if not when. And while Gmail may be ad-supported, their current lineup of mobile based email clients are not. At least I've never seen an ad on my gmail java-based client on my phone. Or any other google mobile product (gmaps, gmail, etc).

    Is t-mobile going to ask Google to develop a T-mobile specific client (with a hardcoded encrypted access point) that purposely injects ads? If so, it's nothing that's ever been confirmed by t-mobile, or google. Just the thoughts of the author based on presumably how gmail works on the web.

  • What's with this modern definition of free? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by pembo13 ( 770295 ) on Monday September 22, 2008 @07:57PM (#25112635) Homepage
    Unless all you need to do is purchase a phone and call T-Mobile up to enable this feature it isn't free. It may be at no additional cost, but it isn't free.

  • /. phone pics (Score:4, Interesting)

    by religious freak ( 1005821 ) on Monday September 22, 2008 @08:12PM (#25112837)
    Hey um, not to be too picky here, but do you think that when an article mentions something as relatively advanced as free data access on a mobile device (which also happens to be a phone), we could have a picture of something more modern than a 1982 suitcase phone, a rotary phone my grandma would've laughed at and what looks to be some kind of 1970s pacman pocket game?

    Just a thought.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mgblst ( 80109 )

      Yes, because that is what we all care about the stupid icon used. Lets discuss icons for a while, not the details.

  • Encryption? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by proxima ( 165692 ) on Monday September 22, 2008 @08:30PM (#25113039)

    For me, this would be more useful if it used https to gmail. The article, of course, is just one step shy of speculation (and why not link to the original blog post [cnn.com] with more information?).

    T-Mobile is in a decent position with the next gen of smart phones. I've seen their "hotspots" more commonly than other carriers. Combine a wireless plan with their hotspot plan (which appears to be a little pricey at $20/mo with phone service) and you've got cell coverage most places and 802.11 coverage many places.

    Still, I'm not likely to get a data plan myself. A nice (open) phone that can use 802.11 and get email for "free" sounds pretty good to me.

  • Cool (Score:2, Interesting)

    by motang ( 1266566 )
    Considering the fact that GMail is my primary email that is actually very good news...this is becoming more and more appealing to me.
    • I agree. I'm already a T-Mobile customer, having their cell service for over 2 years and now also using their @Home router for a home phone. I've been thinking of upgrading my cellphone but have been putting it off to see what is coming up next. I think this G1 is what I've been waiting for. And like you, gmail is already my primary email account, so a perfect fit.

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