How many Google engineers does it take to tell the time?

A few days ago I blogged about Microsoft's advertising campaign for Windows Vista being embarrassed by the revelation that some of the images were produced on Apple computers. Now, according to Gizmodo, it looks like Google is joining Microsoft in the "embarrassment corner".

So here I was, all excited about Android. Not because the G1's physical design is especially attractive. In fact, it's a gray design with no soul. Not because of the user interface, which at first glance reminded me of a mash-up between the Nintendo DS and a '90s Windows desktop manager. No, I was excited because this is the first post-iPhone smartphone that could be a serious challenger to Apple's mounting dominance. Then I looked closely at this image and realized the G1 will not pose a threat to Apple at all.




The problem in this promotional mock-up image is obvious: The analog clock says it's 9:10 but the digital clock says it's 2:47.

I know. It seems like a dumb problem. But it is an obvious one. This is one of their main promotional images—which incidentally shows a T-Mobile G1 with a screen that seems to be broken, something which is bad enough on its own—and they failed to get it right. The problem with the clocks would have never escaped Apple's ferocious attention to detail, but it is not the image itself that's so troubling. It is what it symbolizes, what is missing at Android's most fundamental level: Attention to detail.

More at the link. I suspect Google has a long way to go with this project!



Peter