First Android Smartphone May Come From T-Mobile
Date : 15 Aug 2008 Category : Technology
NewsFactor NetworkThe New York Times said Thursday that the phone, being made by HTC, is expected to go on sale as early as October, in order to make the holiday season. It cited unnamed sources who had been briefed on T-Mobile's plans.
Touchscreen, Keyboard
The new device using the open-source Android software stack will reportedly have smartphone capabilities that compare with the Apple iPhone and devices from Research in Motion, Nokia and others.
The HTC phone is expected to have a touchscreen that slides out to reveal a full keyboard. A video purportedly showing the Android device is now on YouTube. Even if development is completed, the phone must still be certified by the Federal Communications Commission before it can be released.
The expected launch of an Android-based phone is attracting a lot of attention for several reasons.
First, it is based on the Google-backed platform, and Google, like Apple, is a powerful brand name with a major following.
Second, Android offers the possibility of a mobile environment driven from the ground up, rather than the familiar top-down offerings of major phone companies. The Linux-based operating system is freely available and backed by an alliance of carriers and manufacturers. Android phones will be able to run applications developed by third-party developers, a potentially dynamic ecosystem like the iPhone's.
An Android-based phone would also arrive as open-device/open-software networks are emerging in the U.S. In the FCC auction of 700-MHz bandwidth earlier this year, Verizon Wireless won the licenses to the C block along with an obligation to allow any compatible device or non-malicious software to work on the frequencies. This, along with the possibility of other open networks, could mean that Android becomes a major part of a new...