HTC obviously has high hopes for Google’s Android OS if recent claims are to be believed.
The manufacturer has already thrown its hat into the ring by helping develop the first Android handset, the Dream, but this is apparently only the start.
Speaking to Taiwanese analysts, HTC CEO Peter Chou has come out and said his company plans to launch up to three Android-based phones in the coming year, and expect its revenues to rise 20% next year.
Some manufacturers like Samsung and Motorola have already signed up to Google’s Open Handset Alliance, but Nokia is yet to commit fully. HTC’s support will be a fillip to Google’s attempts to break the Windows Mobile-Symbian-UIQ hegemony of mobile OS systems.
He also said that HTC plans to launch new user interface that’s better than TouchFLO and its first WiMAX devices by early 2009.
[Via Digi Times]
They just wouldn’t let it lie, would they? After seemingly dismissing Google’s Android mobile OS and its Open Handset Alliance (OHA), Nokia is now saying it might participate after all.
After Google unveiled its open-source rival to Symbian earlier this week, Nokia was notable by its absence from the OHA.
Google announced over 30 of the world’s largest operators and manufacturers as partners, but Nokia and Microsoft, who have their Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms respectively, hadn’t signed up.
At the time, Nokia said Android wasn’t a threat to its part-owned Symbian OS. Now, Nokia has told Reuters it might be interested after all.
“It’s not ruled out at all. If we would see this as beneficial we would think about taking part in it,” said Kari Tuutti, spokesman for Nokia’s multimedia unit. “We should never close any doors.”
So is this an admission by Nokia it mis-judged the industry’s attitude to the upstart Google?
[Via Yahoo]
Despite some people, notably Nokia, Microsoft and Symbian dismissing Google’s new Android operating system, it is apparently ploughing ahead with five prototype phones of one design, based on its Open Handset Alliance software development kit (SDK).
The phone is codenamed ‘Dream’ inside Google and will be used to show what it’s open-source software can do and also woo potential partners to join the Alliance.
The Dreamâ looks like an iPhone only thinner and features a rectangular touch-sensitive screen. Interestingly, the screen is time-sensitive, so when you hold your finger down on an icon, the area expands. The screen also swivels to one side to reveal a QWERTY keyboard.
The ‘Dream’ has the usual functions like email and other messaging forms, and also YouTube. Unlike other phones the YouTube application runs like a java application, meaning that once open it stays open (but running in the background) until you close it. This way, if someone sends you a YouTube video you can run it immediately without having to run your browser.
The ‘Dream’ is made by HTC, which is already considering a commercial version for the second half of 2008 (the one mentioned by Google?).
[Via Forbes]
Nokia, Microsoft, Apple and RIM - notable omissions from Google’s Open Handset Alliance - have all dismissed Android, the new upstart to a mobile OS market dominated by Symbian and Windows Mobile.
Reuters canvassed the companies on their responses to Android and all brushed it aside, claiming that it may boost web browsing on handsets but won’t threaten their dominance.
“If Google was not involved the industry would have just yawned and rolled over,” John Forsyth, strategy chief at Symbian, told Reuters. He said it would face difficulties basing the platform on an open-source, collectively designed Linux operating system.
He went on: “We have been going nine years and have probably seen a dozen new platforms come in and tell us we are under attack.
“We take it seriously but we are the ones with real phones, real phone platforms and a wealth of volume built up over years.”
Meanwhile Nokia, which owns 48% of Symbian simply said: “We don’t see this as a threat.”
Continue reading ‘OHA rivals Nokia et al dismiss Google’s Android mobile OS’
Google has officially unveiled its plans for mobile — and they don’t include its own phone.
Instead Google announced plans for its own open-source mobile operating system, dubbed Android. It has also announced support from over 30 companies collectively called the Open Handset Alliance.
The news hasn’t really come as a huge shock to the industry after leaks over the weekend, but it could still have massive repercussions for the industry.
Basically Android will be a competitor for Symbian, Windows Mobile and other mobile handset systems. However, unlike its rivals- and most notably Apple and its iPhone - Android will be a truly open platform meaning anyone can develop for it or modify it to suit their tastes, and this includes operators, manufacturers and users.
Companies who have signed up to Google’s Open Handset Alliance include China Mobile, eBay, HTC, LG, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung and T-Mobile. Notable omissions from the list include Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone and Orange.
Google said the software development kit (SDK) will be made available next week, and that the first phones using Android to appear in public should be in just over six months.
As excitement rose over the weekend about Google’s rumoured ‘Gphone’ announcement today, CNet news has come up with a convincing analysis as to what we might expect.
It seems the ‘GPhone’ might not be a specific handset, but instead will be a suite of software for mobiles based on open-source technology (Think a Google equivalent of Windows Mobile or Symbian), adopted by manufacturers.
It’s believed the platform will be code-named Android, which coincidentally enough, was the name of a mobile software company acquired by Google in 2005.
Sources close to Google have said that a software development kit for mobiles is in the works, and that a whole range of companies are involved in something called the Open Handset Alliance, featuring over 30 companies including HTC, Samsung and Motorola.
Basically, what CNet is saying is that Google’s plans are for a completely open mobile software platform that will go against the ‘walled garden’ approach so often taken by mobile operators, and which would open up the mobile internet.
If Google is successful in getting mobile manufacturers and operators to adopt its platform, this could be a seismic event in mobile. Then again, if all this is untrue, then it won’t.
