My Questions/Issues with the Droid after 1 Month of Use

[crspang]

Although I understand that Google and Yahoo! are competitors, by Google not including the type of support necessary to make it work out of the box, I think they are just hurting the image of Android. Linux is a very powerful operating system and can be had for free, though how popular has it become with non-techy geeks?

Part of what makes iPhone so successful is the word of mouth of how easy everything is to setup and use. Anyone off the street can (and does) purchase iPhones. Now if Google is looking to compete with this same market and not just with tech geeks, how can they expect someone to be capable or have the patience to search for the settings to make their Yahoo email work? And, I think it is very foolish for Google to just disregard the fact that lots of people use Yahoo! mail and will not just switch to Gmail out of frustration of not being able to use Yahoo on their Droids. I switched to Google calendar because it is simply just a different workflow for me to maintain my calendar. I considered returning the Droid after spending about 5-hrs trying to get it to synch with my iCal before just trying Googe Calendar. Switching to another email provider is not as easy -- people become comfortable with their email accounts and do not want to risk losing emails during transitions, etc.

Google and Yahoo are in competition with each other. If I were in control of Google the last thing I would do is try to prop up the competitor by offering free support for a product that Google provides also. Its obviously a business decision by Yahoo and Google not to provide "out of the box" support for competing services.

The root of the Yahoo e-mail problem lies on Yahoo's side, by default their FREE U.S. e-mail accounts do not support POP3 or forwarding you have to PAY Yahoo for that service. It is NOT Google's fault or a lack of support on Google's side. The non-support of Yahoo mail complaint should go to Yahoo, not Google!

[stanwelks]

How does the iPhone get around this then?

Although I understand that Google and Yahoo! are competitors, by Google not including the type of support necessary to make it work out of the box, I think they are just hurting the image of Android. Linux is a very powerful operating system and can be had for free, though how popular has it become with non-techy geeks?

Part of what makes iPhone so successful is the word of mouth of how easy everything is to setup and use. Anyone off the street can (and does) purchase iPhones. Now if Google is looking to compete with this same market and not just with tech geeks, how can they expect someone to be capable or have the patience to search for the settings to make their Yahoo email work? And, I think it is very foolish for Google to just disregard the fact that lots of people use Yahoo! mail and will not just switch to Gmail out of frustration of not being able to use Yahoo on their Droids. I switched to Google calendar because it is simply just a different workflow for me to maintain my calendar. I considered returning the Droid after spending about 5-hrs trying to get it to synch with my iCal before just trying Googe Calendar. Switching to another email provider is not as easy -- people become comfortable with their email accounts and do not want to risk losing emails during transitions, etc.

Google and Yahoo are in competition with each other. If I were in control of Google the last thing I would do is try to prop up the competitor by offering free support for a product that Google provides also. Its obviously a business decision by Yahoo and Google not to provide "out of the box" support for competing services.

The root of the Yahoo e-mail problem lies on Yahoo's side, by default their FREE U.S. e-mail accounts do not support POP3 or forwarding you have to PAY Yahoo for that service. It is NOT Google's fault or a lack of support on Google's side. The non-support of Yahoo mail complaint should go to Yahoo, not Google!

[crspang]

I'm sure Apple and Yahoo have a financial relationship.
Google's business model and long term plans are to offer seamless GOOGLE services(Chrome operating system Etc.), so right now Yahoo doesn't fit into that.