Ultra mobile PCs don’t really fall under our remit, but anything concerning Google’s Android mobile OS definitely does. So news that Asus is considering Android as a platform for a future model of its successful line of Eee PCs has caused double takes all over the office.
Speaking to TechRadar at CES (as in the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas), Asus CEO, Johnny Shih, let slip that the company is looking into releasing an Eee branded Android phone and it is considering Google’s mobile OS as the basis for a full Eee PC too.
Whether the latter will ever come to fruition or not, it is encouraging that companies like Asus are even considering Android as an alternative to Linux for their ultra mobile PCs and it certainly bodes well for Android’s scaleability as a platform. Indeed Shih also commented that he knew of other ultra mobile PC manufacturers that have been eyeing Android too.
Asus is already a card carrying member of the Open Handset Alliance, otherwise known as Android’s godfather, so at the very least the prospect of an Eee branded phone is very real. By the end of 2009, it’s going to be difficult to determine where smartphones end and laptops begin.
(Via TechRadar)
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About Fraser MacInnes
“Android as an alternative to Linux”
Except Android IS a Linux.
A severely streamlined one, but one still.