Anyone expecting the Google mobile operating system to change the market as Apple's iPhone has over the past year will probably be disappointed -- for now.
Industry insiders who have worked on Google's Android system say it will struggle in the near term to match the consumer enthusiasm generated by the iPhone, which redefined the touch-screen phone market and greatly improved mobile Web surfing.
Instead, Google sees Android as an open source platform for designing mobile devices and says it will encourage innovation by allowing outside software developers to tinker with the system and create better mobile programs and services.
But these things take time, and the first phone using Android, code-named the Google "Dream" phone, is unlikely to wow consumers. The device is made by HTC of Taiwan. Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile unit reportedly intends to introduce it in New York on Tuesday.
"I'm not sure the consumer experience is significantly better than that of the iPhone," said Rajeev Chand, a wireless analyst at the investment bank Rutberg, who has tried out an early version of Android. "When the iPhone came out, the experience was several orders of magnitude better than anything that was out there."
Google, its partner carriers and application developers hope the Android platform will drive even more mobile Web surfing than the iPhone, which has helped mobile Internet use rocket in comparison with other smartphones.
But unlike Apple, which keeps a tight grip on the iPhone's hardware and software, Google will have less control. Android will be open to developers to create component technologies in almost any way they can imagine.
Google's engineering-led culture appears content to introduce the first Android phones as a kind of science project that will be rapidly improved afterward. But Google will not have the kind of leverage in mobile that it is used to in...

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