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Google has announced this week that it is working with several manufacturers/carriers on the development of Android, the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. Just to name a few, some of the Open Handset Alliance founding members include HTC, Intel, Qualcomm, Motorola, LG, Samsung, Marvell, Texas Instruments, Broadcom and more.

It is interesting to see that some of these big names in the Windows Mobile market are interested in this new platform. If you are a mobile developer, you can also look forward to the release of the SDK on 12th November 2007. HTC has also been quoted that they will probably start launching devices to run on this new platform from the second half of 2008. Is HTC Omni the destined one?

Well...it is easy to hype and launch an alternative OS to WM, but it is no mean feat to get all the games, utilities, freewares, maps and many other application developers to produce the whole range consisting of thousands of softwares that currently support WM OS. Even Palm & Symbian Mobile OS cannot thrive, wonder how long Android will survive? The only real competitor so far is perhaps Apple which seem to offer real alternatives to Windows in their ability to think out of the box approach.

Where did you get that ? PalmOS had more softwares than Windows ever had. The only problem was the management issue they had, which proved disastrous to the OS. There is spinning of the another company to take care of OS then buying it back. Then lagging on feature offering.

But nevertheless, if Palm did everything right, we won't be both talking here.

wow. i'm sure Microsoft is very happy that some of its biggest partners are in the alliance

Android Testing?

This is actually a testing by Japan's Willcom, showing off the operating system's multitasking abilities answering a phone call while running Google Maps.

Symphony I'm afraid you might be right about only one thing: its easy to build hype (something that MS has often been good at but not often able to follow through).

firstly, i dont get how do you consider long standing, over 72% market share (of Symbian) as "cannot thrive", and a dwarfed 6% market share (of Windows Mobile) as dominant? or you just didnt check the figures yet?
So for the "real competitors", Symbian is not competition, they are already way too head. competition is between WM, Linux, RIM and the likes.

As for Android, thats not an OS, its a platform on top of smartphone OS. thats why even Nokia showed a mild interest in it. I guess they either wanna keep their options open, or remove all hope for any competition.

By the way, before Android was launched, it was trumpted by the media as the "iPhone killer", but once it was revealed its software not a device, its been dubbed the "Windows Mobile killer". now thats something to think about.

Bilal
http://buzzzword.blogspot.com/

An Android prototype was spotted on Gizmondo and there are some pretty good reviews about the operating system but i cant say so for the hardware, aint not my cup of tea that's for sure the design of the device itself.

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Another demonstration of the Android operation system, this time by a la Mobile, a company specializing in Linux-based open-source technology. Tested on a HTC Qtek 9090 aka O2 Xda IIs, they were able to demonstrate Android's browser, phone dialer, audio player, maps, camera, games, calendar, contacts manager, calculator, task manager, and notes, in full glory enhanced by a la Mobile's own graphical user interface.

Read about it HERE.

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