18 Android Phones, In 3 Flavors, By Year's End

Hugh Pickens writes "Andy Rubin, senior director for Mobile Platforms for Google, has announced that by the end of the year there will be 18 to 20 phones using the Android OS made by 8 or 9 different manufacturers. Google will offer three different versions of Android OS: a completely free and generic flavor with no pre-loaded Google applications; a slightly customized version that comes pre-loaded with Google apps like Gmail and Google Calendar; and a completely 'Google-fied' Android OS bearing all sorts of Google branding and integration with Google's services. Will Park reports that the expectation is that 12 to 14 of the upcoming Android phones will use the slightly-customized version of Google's Android OS requiring the manufacturer to agree to a distribution deal with Google that would allow the handsets to come pre-installed with Google-ware. The remaining 5 or 6 Android phones will come to market completely decked out with 'The Google Experience' and a Google logo on the phone. This third option provides risk and reward opportunities because the openness of the store could be a hit with consumers, but could also lead to poorly constructed or offensive applications that could give Google a taint. When it comes to apps, Rubin says: 'We want to abide by the law, but not rule with an open fist.'" Yes, it seems he really said "open fist," though he probably meant "iron fist."

A Suggestion

[Bangmaker]

Personally I think google can either epically win or fail with this move. One thing I see as very important is making sure not all of the phones are smartphones. The article suggests that several service providers will be in on the deal (already a step above apple in my opinion), however, if every phone delivered is a smartphone, much of the market will be lost. Not everyone can afford the expenses of internet and email that come with a smartphone. I would get the phone simply because it was running Andriod even if it weren't a smartphone.

Huh?

[sudden.zero]

I own a G1 and it already is " ... pre-loaded with Google apps like Gmail and Google Calendar" so my first thought is are they going to try and sell what I already have for more money and sell one with less features for the price of mine? If so that won't go over well. I mean $300 is great for a open source phone that I can write my own apps for like I currently have. However, if they go changing the recipe too much then they might screw it up!

Re:A Suggestion

[lordandmaker]

I can putty with mine fine. Not felt the need to use VoIP yet, I'm struggling to get through the contract-bundled minutes at the minute. Aside from T-Mobile arbitrarily sticking a net-nanny on it, and then revoking it after a brief phone call, I've not found any restrictions on the connectivity yet.

Re:Android should scare mainstream phone makers

[david.given]

I was looking at a Chinese iphone knockoff, thinking that the hardware seems decent, but I wouldn't trust the knockoff operating system. With Android, though, the cheap knockoff can legally have the very same operating system, since they don't have to pay license fees.

Indeed; a lot of the Chinese family-industry phones are technically fascinating (and quite cheap). Having a real OS would make them much more attractive.

Unfortunately, it's not quite that easy --- remember that Android is designed for a two-chip system, where one processor runs the user apps (and is the one running Android), and another processor running a quite different operating system handles the GSM stack. On the G1, for example, there's a massive 20MB-or-so operating system image for the radio processor. This usually runs some embedded OS like Nucleus, and is highly proprietary, signed to be tamper-proof, and is deeply regulated; in most countries, tinkering with the radio image will cause your local telecommunications regulator to slap you round the face with lawsuits before you can blink.

I don't know where the Chinese knockoffs get their GSM stack but it's probably ripped off from a commercial product --- copyright doesn't mean much there. Which means they're probably not properly licensed by the GSM people, which means that it's very unlikely you'll be able to legally operate them in other countries. They may work, but that doesn't guarantee anything --- and if the device has a bug in its GSM stack which causes a local outage, you'll be in a world of legal pain.

Re:A Suggestion

[dwater]

..and putty [sourceforge.net].

Re:Sprint?

[rufus t firefly]

Couldn't you just buy an Android dev phone now and swap the SIM out of your Sprint phone?

More money up front, of course, but no contract obligation and you have root access to the phone.

Disclaimer: I haven't received my dev phone yet (it's supposed to arrive today!), so I'm not certain this will work. I'm planning to toss in the SIM card out of a Walmart Special prepaid phone I have hanging around, but that's a T-Mobile unit.

Would work well if Sprint didn't use CDMA, which unfortunately precludes the use of SIM cards [yahoo.com].

Re:Features I'm Looking For in My Next Phone

[riflemann]

• Wifi (Must be able to connect to my home network at home)
• SIP Client (Must be able to connect to my Asterisk server at home)
• Bluetooth tethering for a MacBook Pro (For those rare times when I'm not near a wifi access point.)

Already possible, alas you need an unlocked G1 for the tethering:

- Wifi, already there

- Sip: http://code.google.com/p/sipdroid/ [google.com]

- Bluetooth tether: http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/ [google.com]