A handful of announcements this week regarding the Android OS add momentum to the uptake of Google’s nascent mobile platform. First, ASUS, the well known computer hardware manufacturer, has announced it’s intention to create Android based handsets for release by mid year 2009. Looks like they will be testing the models in the Taiwanese market first then bringing them to the west.
Asustek’s 3.5G P552w PDA phonePhoto: CJ Liu, Digitimes, October 2008
Second, Motorola has announced that it will be using the Android platform for nearly ALL of it’s mid-level phones. This was an even greater pledge than was first thought a few weeks ago. Motorola also announced that they will be cutting the number of operating systems that they build for from six to three.
Android is very much in it’s infancy. It is only availble on one handset, the G1 by HTC, but there is very serious work being done to ensure its spread. Google has begun talking to some of the leading universities in the US about building curriculum around Android. Universities like Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon. And companies such as Motorola are using Android in products other than mobile phones such as set top boxes for TV.
Add to all this that just this week WalMart and T-Mobile announced they will be offering the HTC G1 at all WalMart stores for $148.88. Putting an Android phone into one of the nation’s most heavily trafficked chains is definitely a good idea. It will be interesting to watch the sales numbers.
The future could be bright for this open source platform. As many others have predicted, we may be set to watch a showdown between an “open” model (Android) and a “closed” model (Apple OS). This could very well be the Apple verses PC struggle of the new millennium.
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