Mobile Technology

The Android handset war begins in 2009

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Google's Android will be rolled out on handsets by a number of major manufacturers in 2009 and beyond.
Google's Android will be rolled out on handsets by a number of major manufacturers in 2009 and beyond.
HTC Dream (AKA the T-Mobile G1)

March 16, 2009 While Apple's iPhone has enjoyed enormous success using a highly controlled, locked-down handset, operating system and application store, Google's touchscreen smartphone platform takes the opposite approach. Android is a completely open-source operating system, meaning that developers can write whatever abilities they want into it - and Google doesn't make or recommend any particular handsets. The HTC Dream (AKA the T-Mobile G1) gave Android a start in the market - but several big-name competitors are working on Android smartphones to be released sometime this year. The battle for Android handset supremacy is about to begin - let's take a look at the challengers.

While Apple has kept things incredibly simple and controlled with the iPhone, Google's Android platform is entirely based around consumer choice - for better or worse. Where the iPhone offers too few options in many cases, Google's OS will dazzle you with choice.

Android is both completely open-source and pretty much handset-independent - so once handset manufacturers start producing serious options, you can expect to see a huge range of different phones available running the Google OS - incorporating different screen sizes, resolutions, keypad options, processors, inbuilt memory options, communications devices, price points and every other imaginable variation.

The HTC Dream, or T-Mobile G1, was rushed to market in October last year as an iPhone alternative, but has failed to ignite interest or capture the public imagination in the way Apple has. Not to worry, plenty of opportunities are coming - Google has an even bigger fan base in the computing world than Apple, and a number of manufacturers are gearing up to release Android handsets in 2009.

Samsung

Samsung plans to have "at least three" Android phones in its lineup by the end of 2009. The first unit has already been flagged - it should hit the Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile networks in America by June.

LG

LG will dip its toe in the water with an updated version of its KS360 handset tweaked to run Android and scheduled to launch this (American) Summer. The KS360 is a budget handset with a 2-megapixel camera and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

There's another two Android phones in the works, expected by the end of 2009, so hopefully we'll see what LG can do with a high-performance Android handset before too long.

HTC

While HTC's Dream/T-Mobile G1 was the first Android handset to make it to market, it didn't light a lot of fires with consumers. But HTC is planning to capitalize on its 6-odd months of market experience by launching a second Android handset very shortly. The HTC Magic has already been shown in pre-production form, and it's launching very soon in Europe.

The Magic is slick, pretty and it looks fairly fast as well. Unlike the G1, the Magic is a fully touch-screen phone, using a software keyboard. It looks fantastic, and hopefully will be one of the first truly attractive options to pull customers away from the iPhone.

NVIDIA

Mobile phones are absolutely going to be the hottest media delivery platform of the next decade or so - so it should be no surprise that graphics hardware specialists NVIDIA are planning to take a bite at the handset cherry.

NVIDIA's Tegra chipset will soon find its way into a consumer-level touchscreen internet device and smartphone - and the platform has already been demonstrated with a hastily slapped-on Android installation. While it's still buggy and in its infancy, the NVIDIA phone's massive graphics handling capability will allow it to play movies in full 1080p HD - and output the signal to a big-screen TV. That's a serious selling point; your phone becomes a portable digital video drive. We can't wait to hear more.

Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson caused a rush of speculation when it joined the Open Handset Alliance and committed to build an Android handset at the end of 2008. While it's unlikely that they'll get anything to market by the end of 2009, the potential for a Sony Android phone is very exciting.

The first handset will be a high end product, according to the Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog, and it will be followed by more affordable mass-market products. The company will continue to make Symbian and Windows Mobile phones as well. We're sure to hear more later this year.

Archos

While most of the focus will understandably be on the phone handset market, Android's capabilities will make it a good fit for a number of other applications - some of them very exciting indeed.

Archos is implementing Android on an "Internet Media Tablet" - bigger and more powerful than a phone in every way, with a 5-inch HD touchscreen, digital TV recording and playback, fast processor, 500GB hard drive and a battery capable of 7 hours of video playback. With phones replacing computers in so many areas, perhaps we can expect more of these larger touchscreen devices to come out of the woodwork.

Archos is understood to be charging to market, so we can expect to see this device sometime in 2009. It will be interesting to see if its resolution, big storage and grunt will make up for its size and baffling use of spinning hard drives.

What do you think

In the next 12 months you'll be seeing a cavalcade of new Android phones, running a broad spectrum of capabilities. Some will be hugely powerful, others very affordable.

Will the Android phones combine to take a proper bite out of Apple's market share? Will the techie crowd jump on board when they see a handset that's powerful and sorted enough to raise their eyebrows? And will the mass market follow, now that the iPhone has irreversibly raised their expectations of what a phone can do?

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Loz Blain

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7 comments
David Fromant
To me, Android handsets compared to the iPhone are a little like the various Netbooks compared to my beloved Macbook Pro; Namely that they would have to pry the latter from my cold dead fingers, but I'd *really* like to have (at least one of) the former.
Nathan Eshraghi
@ David, you are so true. However I don't think you can compare android to windows xp/vista. Android is actually pretty good!
and remember.... it's Google =].
MOLEMAN
This new system can only advance mobile device's even futher, I'm all for movement, may even help Windows Mobile look beyond what there doing?
ImpureScience
This is great - next step in convergence with respect to hand held devices and personal computers. Soon (I hope) an end to restrictive deals between phone mfrs and phone companies.
CreativeApex
While I don't like Apple's business model when it comes to Itunes as its not a value-added experience, the Iphone was pure innovation. Apple created an "app" market where there previously had been none. Sure you could buy an application for your phone and it might work.. but that was never a guarantee and besides in two years you had a new phone that it wouldn't work on. Apple not only set the ground rules with the OS, but populated the little Iphone box with all sorts of goodies that programmers could tap into (acclerometers, GPS signals, a multi-touch interface). Its like giving you a robot to program, its got legs, arms, and all the guts to make it work but you got to program it. Because its an Iphone and will be an Iphone in years to come the likelihood is that your iphone 2.0 app will work on iphone 10.0.
This is what Android does not have.. sure you provide a common OS for phone manufacturers but unless you do more groundwork to standardize the I/O so that a program is truly universal no software programmer is going to waste their time writing for one particular phone that's not an Iphone. If a phone maker comes up with a true Iphone killer than it will change but simply copying the features of an Iphone won't do it. The manufacturers will have to look ahead and try to think up something innovative themselves.
I do look forward to a gmail app that does work on a phone other than an iphone though... Hey google why don't you go fix the softkey glitch on my scp-7050? That phone is built to last a battery charge still lasts a week after two years.....
Neil
I'm with you, tgmeob. Isn't it funny that the entire industry is still playing catch up to the iPhone? While they can boast features Apple's *very first attempt at a phone* doesn't yet have they simply cannot match the design and slickness. I tried a few copycats. Yuk.
Android, et al will be good only because it'll keep Apple sharp, which is an irony, as I can't help reminding myself that none of them would have bothered until Jobs pulled a phone running OSX out of his pocket.
Andrew Scott
@neil "Android, et al will be good only because it'll keep Apple sharp, which is an irony" This shows a serious lack of understanding of the phone market and its size, IMHO. Android will be big. In 5 years it will dominate U.S. and western european phones. However, the vast bulk of the 4 billion worldwide handsets are still basic feature phones and will be for some considerable time. Apple will always produce stylish products (at least, while Jobs is at the helm) but it will also become what Apple is in the PC market; a small but important niche, the minority good looking kid in class, with disproportionate impact. Important yes, dominant, no.