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Monday September 29, 2008
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Just how serious are phone manufacturers about Android, Google's new, open OS? According to TechCrunch, several phone manufacturers are following HTC and T-Mobile's example--in a big way.
Motorola currently has 50 people on its Android squad, a number expected to increase to 350 soon, according to a job recruiter tasked with getting programmers to join the cause.
Nokia and Verizon have also apparently been looking to join up, despite the fact that neither phone heavyweight is currently an official member of Google's Android alliance.
My guess is that pretty much everyone but Apple and AT&T is tired of being left out of all of that iPhone buzz from the past few years. T-Mobile's G1 launch got plenty of notice, but rest assured that this is only the beginning of the big time Android hype.
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September 29, 2008 8:09 PM
Uh oh. It's finally happening - Apple is repeating history. :(
It was first on the scene and everyone will fondly remember them for that, but their walled garden approach will cause other developers and companies to pursue a more open and developer-friendly distribution system for their applications and products. Eventually Apple's market share will slide because people and developers will percieve that you just can't "do" as much with Apple's walled garden as with the competition's open environment.
Sound familiar? I'm scared that this story of the Apple App Store in comparison to Google's Android is far too similar to the history of keeping the Apple Macintosh and MacOS buckled down versus Microsoft's "you make the hardware, we'll make the OS and open it up to anyone who wants to play" attitude...