As a company that has built a business model atop trust, Google is in a sticky position as it prepares to formally introduce the Nexus One phone.
Google's Nexus One phone could be a sea change in how Google works with Android partners who might turn into competitors.
(Credit: Cory O'Brien via Twitter)Google employees were given free Nexus One phones at a company party Friday night, and the Internet went into a tizzy. Reports surfaced later in the weekend that this device was the long-awaited Google phone, the company's answer to Apple's strategy of controlling the hardware, software, and distribution model with the iPhone, rather than the partner-oriented strategy of developing the guts of the operating system and letting partners each put their own stamp on the finished product.
Just two months ago, Google's Andy Rubin rolled his eyes when asked about an analyst report picked up by TheStreet.com that said Google planned to pursue this exact strategy. He said Google had no plans to make its own hardware--which is one thing since smartphones are almost exclusively manufactured by contractors in China and Taiwan--but he took a further step in spending about 10 minutes arguing why it would be a bad idea for Google to design its own phone and sell it outside of carrier channels.
That line of thinking resonated with many who follow Google and the mobile industry. After all, Google's stated goal for Android ever since the project was revealed in November 2007 was to create an "ecosystem" of multiple phones that would help improve access to the mobile Internet. And Google seemed to finally reach that goal this year, with over a dozen phones in the wild and more promised from some of the world's leading phone makers and wireless carriers.
But if the reports are correct, Google is about to make a radical departure from that strategy. And Google's new course would take it down a path that could sow distrust among the company's Open Handset Alliance partners, who must now be wondering if they're about to get into a marketing war with one of the tech industry's richest companies.
Katie Watson, a Google representative, said on Sunday that the company has confirmed nothing about its plans for the Nexus One, described as a "dogfooding" experiment for internal testing by the company in a blog post Saturday.
In the rush to anoint the Nexus One as the Google Phone, it's quite possible that the tech industry glossed over the fact that Google already sells Android phones, albeit on a limited basis. For quite some time, registered Android developers have been able to buy completely unlocked versions of the G1 and the T-Mobile MyTouch3G (also known as the Google Ion) for $399.
Google does sell some phones, such as the Google Ion, but only to developers for Android testing purposes.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)So there is a solid chance that the Nexus One is merely the Android Dev Phone 3, following the Dev Phone 1 (G1) and Dev Phone 2 (MyTouch or Ion). Just this year, Google handed out Dev Phone 2 models branded as the Google Ion to attendees at Google I/O 2009, but if regular people want to buy that particular phone they have to get the MyTouch3G from T-Mobile with a two-year contract.
It does seem clear that Google has played the premier role in designing the software for the Nexus One. In the company's blog post over the weekend, it said "we recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe."
But the key unconfirmed detail is how Google plans to sell this phone. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google plans to sell this phone unsubsidized on its own, with consumers able to choose a wireless service provider after the fact. However, according to corporate sibling Peter Kafka at All Things D's MediaMemo and Reuters, Google has plans to hook up with longtime mobile partner T-Mobile to help sell the Nexus One through Google's Web site for $199.
How will Google market this phone? Anyone with a television set has likely seen an ad over the last month for the Motorola Droid, an Android phone sold for Verizon's network that has been billed as one of the best Android phones to date. It was also the launch pad for a long-term pact between Google and Verizon that will supposedly produce a family of devices based on Android.
If Google plans to sell the Nexus One directly to consumers, will it insist upon using its brand as the lead brand, rather than the "With Google" branding found on the back of many Android phones? Will it blast the airwaves during the NFL playoffs in January to trumpet the arrival of the Nexus One, perhaps just in time for the Super Bowl? And how will that affect partners such as Motorola and Verizon that have sunk so much money into promoting the Droid, only to see rumors of a Google Phone leak out at the worst possible time: the height of the holiday shopping season?
This could be a very telling moment in Google's history. At the moment, Google's mobile division does not seem to be completely in control of the message it wants to send consumers, partners, and competitors.
If Google really does plan to sell the Nexus One directly to consumers and compete with its customers, it has chosen an interesting way to announce it to the world, keeping the Google Phone rumor mill alive for months while publicly denying such plans. Apple has employed such a marketing strategy for years, insisting on near-silence regarding future product plans but benefiting enormously from the frenzy of interest in every little morsel that mysteriously pops up regarding those plans.
However, Google is not Apple. Google public-relations representatives will sheepishly admit that they have little control over how Google rolls out its products: Google is a company run by engineers, and engineers push the button when the product is ready to ship.
But when you're working in an environment with multiple partners that have competing interests, any confusion over your future plans--especially plans that would appear to yank the floor away--can breed distrust among those partners. One of Google's largest problems right now is that it has built a business model geared around the notion that it can be trusted with almost unprecedented control over the flow of information across the globe, and any cracks in that wall of trust will be exploited by its enemies.
With the way details have trickled out about the Nexus One, Google has either alienated current and future Android partners by muscling in on their turf, or set up thousands of eager smartphone consumers looking for an open alternative to the iPhone for disappointment when they realize Google merely plans to sell an expensive unlocked phone to a limited audience, if at all.
After all, Google essentially declared in its blog post that employees are testing a product with "new mobile features and capabilities" that presumably can't be found on the current crop of phones. It's almost the same language Google used to introduce Chrome OS ("our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be") while insisting that it had no competitive reasons for introducing that Netbook operating system.
Few believed that line with Chrome OS, and fewer still will believe that Google is creating Android for the betterment of humanity if it really plans to sell its own phone.
Is Google really thinking about making a substantial change to its business model by releasing the fabled Gphone?
Would Google really consider derailing Droid momentum with its own phone?
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)TechCrunch sparked the latest round of Gphone rumors Wednesday, reporting that its sources indicate Google is working on releasing a Google-branded Android phone sometime in early 2010 that will be sold directly to consumers at retail, presumably bypassing wireless carriers. Such a phone is supposedly being built by a manufacturing partner with the intent that Google's brand will dominate the phone; TechCrunch compares the strategy to what Microsoft did with Toshiba and the Zune music player.
Well before Google unveiled its Android mobile operating system project two years ago, and almost ever since, persistent rumors have circulated that Google's mobile phone ambitions go beyond software development. Just as consistently, Google executives have downplayed such rumors with statements that the company is most interested in seeding Android far and wide across multiple carriers and hardware manufacturers, rather than following Apple's strategy of designing and building the entire product itself.
Just a few weeks ago, Google's Andy Rubin, vice president of engineering for Android and the head of the project, told CNET that Google had no interest in "competing with its customers" by releasing a Google-developed phone, echoing comments he made earlier in the year that "I'd much rather be the guy that does a platform that's capable of running on multiple companies' phones than just focusing on a single product."
Now, there was some wiggle room in Rubin's statements. Most smartphone hardware brands--even Apple--don't actually build their own phones, they contract with companies in China or Taiwan that assemble the parts. Therefore, Google's statement that "we're not making hardware" doesn't preclude the company from designing hardware.
On Wednesday, Google refused to comment on what it termed "market rumor or speculation." But why would Google build its own phone? What would it have to gain to offset what it could potentially lose?
Google just signed a multiyear collaboration deal with Verizon Wireless, pledging to help develop a family of Android-based products running on Verizon's network. Any attempt on Google's part to bypass Verizon and sell its own branded handset would likely raise a few eyebrows in New Jersey, no matter how close of friends Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam have supposedly become.
So maybe Google wants to completely bypass carrier networks and release the ultimate IP phone, with Google Voice and the technologies it just acquired from Gizmo5. Such a phone would be free of the two-year contracts imposed by the wireless industry, but would it really be compelling without some kind of wide-area networking technology?
Google's Andy Rubin, head of Android development
(Credit: Google)In the same conversation in which he denied Google was working on its own hardware, Rubin implied that Google doesn't think there's much of a future for WiMax, which Intel and others have long billed as a way around the wireless carriers. The company sat out a recent funding round for WiMax start-up Clearwire after investing around $500 million in the company in 2008, and Rubin said it was planning future Android development around the LTE standard, which is the path that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon plan to take to 4G networks. LTE carriers will likely insist on the now-familiar two-year contract to offset the costs of building out that network, unless federal regulators tell them they can't.
But assuming Google really is planning on releasing a completely Google-branded phone at retail, such a plan could derail the momentum enjoyed by Google and its Android partners this year.
The Microsoft/Zune strategy alluded to by TechCrunch was a disaster for Microsoft's PlaysForSure hardware partners, who had been working with the company on MP3 players that hooked into Microsoft's media software. It effectively cut them out of that market, and almost certainly created distrust and outright resentment that could come back to hurt Microsoft one day.
Any Google-branded phone would immediately compete with phones that Google partners like Verizon and Motorola are placing huge bets around, namely the Droid. What incentive would those companies have to work with Google in the future should it throw a huge wrench into their product development strategy?
And even putting all that aside, smartphones in the U.S. are only attractive to consumers because no one actually pays what a smartphone is worth. Heavy carrier subsidies knock the price of the average smartphone from around $500 or $600 to around $200, because time and time again most people have shown that even if they will save money in the long run by avoiding a two-year contract, they get sticker shock at the sight of a $599 phone. Just ask Apple: the iPhone would not be the iPhone if it was still selling for $599.
If Google were to release its own phone at retail, would it have to subsidize it itself to get the price down to about $200? Would the federal government look favorably on such a plan, knowing that virtually no other company could afford to sell such a smartphone at a loss?
TechCrunch later reported that Google could be working on a "data-only" device that would ostensibly use AT&T's network for data services, with calls being placed using VoIP technology. That's a bit puzzling as well, since that would allow Google to annoy new best friend Verizon and AT&T to annoy longtime steady Apple, so at this point, it's hard to know exactly what's going on here.
Few businesspeople directly answer questions about major strategy shifts they might be planning, for the obvious reason that surprise is a competitive advantage. But it's hard to imagine why Google would risk stunting Android momentum just as the software is rounding into the best chance for hardware manufacturers and wireless carriers to compete with Apple and AT&T.
That is, unless somebody at Google has decided that they are the ones with the best chance of competing with Apple.
Google Android
It's been an interesting week for America's second-largest cell phone carrier. First, Verizon Wireless announces it would support unlocked handsets and third-party applications on its CDMA network, and yesterday the company's CEO said the carrier may support Google's new Android platform. "We're planning on using Android," said Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam in an interview with Business Week. "Android is an enabler of what we do."
McAdam didn't say when, or if, Verizon would release handsets that use Android, and a Verizon spokeswoman also declined to elaborate in an e-mail. "We certainly expect some in the development community to embrace the Android platform in the open-access devices and applications they develop," wrote Nancy Stark, the spokeswoman. "We have not yet decided whether we will use Android in any of the devices Verizon Wireless offers." Stark added that the company has yet to decide whether it will join the Google's Open Handset Alliance (OHA), which is developing the Android platform. Though Sprint and T-Mobile are founding members of the OHA, neither carrier has confirmed when they will release Android devices.
Both announcements mark a distinct change in Verizon's practices. The company has a long-standing reputation in the cell phone world for being the most draconian of carriers. Not only did it prohibit the use of unlocked phones on its network, but also it limited Bluetooth use, banned third-party applications, and saddled its handset lineup with an unintuitive and stodgy menu interface.
Update: I added comment from Google.
Painful flashbacks are beginning to torment those of us who lived through the Java wars between Sun Microsystems and Microsoft that began 10 years ago.
Earlier this week, Google released programming tools for its Android mobile-phone software project that shun the existing Java standard-setting process in favor of a Google-specific variety. Sun responded on Wednesday by expressing concern that Google's Android project could fragment Java into incompatible versions.
"Anything that creates a more diverse or fractured platform is not in (developers') best interests," said Rich Green, executive vice president of Sun's software work, speaking to reporters at the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco. "The feedback from developers is, 'Help us fix this.'"
He said Sun wants to work with Google to nip any problems in the bud. "We're really interested in working with Google to make sure developers don't end up with a fractured environment. We're reaching out to Google and assuming they'll be reaching out to us to ensure these platforms and APIs will be compatible so deployment on a wide variety of platforms will be possible," Green said.
Google unrepentant
Google didn't adopt a terribly conciliatory tone in its response, arguing that when it comes to Java fragmentation, Android is the solution, not the problem.
"Google and the other members of the Open Handset Alliance are working to help solve fragmentation and supporting the developer community by creating Android, a mobile platform that responds to the needs of the developers, has the backing of industry leaders, and will be available as open source under a nonrestrictive license," Google said in a statement.
And asked whether it would discuss the issue with Sun, Google said, "We're talking with industry leaders around the world about Android and the Open Handset Alliance but we're not commenting on any of those discussions."
On Monday, Google indicated that it expects fellow members of the Open Handset Alliance phones who are working on the Android phones to help keep its variation of Java familiar to programmers.
Java today is governed by the Java Community Process, in which a number of companies vote on which features to accept into the Java system and create standard mechanisms called application programming interfaces (APIs) by which Java software can use those features. The extent to which Android will or must conform to these APIs is not clear.
For those who need a refresher on the Microsoft history here, the software company licensed Java back in the 1990s, way before it became open-source software. However, Microsoft added some features to Java that meant that it could work differently on Windows machines, a move Sun saw as undermining the "write once, run anywhere" promise of the technology.
Google's Android software gives Sun Microsystems' Java technology a starring role--but not the version of Java the rest of the mobile phone industry has been developing since the 1990s.
Instead, Google struck off on its own in an attempt to improve performance and openness for the software used in the Open Handset Alliance phones. That means programmers will have a new variety of Java to reckon with--offset somewhat by Google's $10 million code contest to draw developers in.
One difference is Google's development of its own core Java virtual machine (JVM) technology called Dalvik, the software that actually executes Java programs on an Android phone, which Google says means Java programs run fast even on the constrained hardware of mobile phones. But a more significant departure than just using an in-house JVM is the fact that Android isn't part of the Java Community Process that Sun established in 1999 to oversee the development of new Java features.
The JCP governs Java by codifying new features as application programming interfaces (APIs), so programmers can have a standard way of calling upon new technology such as Bluetooth support or 3D graphics. But that existing Java realm wouldn't accommodate the developer freedoms Google thought were important in Android.
"We wanted the platform to be open in a lot of different ways," said Mike Cleron, a Google senior staff engineer working on Android. "The idea is that anybody can come along and replace the pieces of the Android experience on a very fine-grained level. The existing APIs didn't really allow the level of openness we were hoping to achieve in Android."
It should be noted that Google isn't working in a Java vacuum. For example, one of the OHA partners, Motorola, has helped lead development of Java for mobile devices, and Google wants to keep the Java programming experience familiar to developers. And Google is an executive committee member of the JCP, though only for the Standard and Enterprise editions that run on PCs and servers, not the mobile edition for phones and other devices.
"We have people on the team who are active in the Java community. They've been helpful in informing us and guiding us, making sure what we were doing is familiar to folks in the Java community," said Steve Horowitz, Android's engineering director.
Further fragmented?
But the bigger issue is whether Google's effort will worsen the already fractured world of Java. Not all phones support all the same Java standards, so programmers can't be sure that their software will run on a multiplicity of devices, as the "write once, run anywhere" Java tagline promises.
"They are using Java, but they aren't implementing any well-known Java framework, and really that just creates another standard to support. The risk they take here is that they might fragment the market further," Benoit Schillings, Trolltech chief technology officer, told my comrade Maggie Reardon. Trolltech, which sells tools and components for programmers whose software runs either on PCs or on mobile phones.
Mauro Lollo, CEO of mobile phone video-streaming company Movidity, saw Google's work similarly. "In essence, they've created another standard. Standards are great, but the challenge is that there are so many of them," he said.
Google also faces a common risk of open-source software, that the openness will mean programmers can "fork" projects in different, incompatible directions. (Indeed, this was one of the earlier reasons Sun resisted its eventual decision to make Java open-source software.) "In the end, you could have 20 different versions of the Android technology that are incompatible, because anyone can take the license, modify it, and create another variation," Schillings said.
For its part, Sun supports Java and open-source software on mobile devices, but expessed some caution about joining Google's alliance. "We were interested in being part of the Google ecosystem, but we were interested in getting more clarity on what this program entails," said Rich Green, executive vice president of Sun's software effort.
Asked if there's any possibility of unifying the Android work with the Java Community Process, Horowitz said, "It's an open alliance. We can welcome anybody who wants to join."
Android uptake
Techno-politics aside, Google clearly has grand aspirations for Android. And it wants outsiders to be part of the development.
In stark contrast to Apple, which plans to release a software developer for its iPhone in February, half a year after the product began shipping, Google is releasing its SDK about a year before any Android phones ship.
"We're making it available pretty early--early enough that we can get feedback at a point where we can still impact the direction of the software," Horowitz said. "People tend not to ship SDKs until the products are done. In this case we thought the platform was such an important part that we wanted to get that out early."
Of course, there's another advantage to releasing an SDK early: the open-source community can help build interesting applications that give Android phones more than just the basic set of programs.
So far, so good, said Horowitz, pointing to "unprecedented" interest in Android compared to other projects hosted at Google's open-source projects site, code.google.com. "It is above and beyond anything Google has seen to date," Horowitz said.
A diagram of the inner workings of Google's Android software for mobile phones.
(Credit: Google)Among details in the SDK:
• It makes mention of support for GSM mobile phone networks, the leading technology for mobile phone networks, but is silent on support for the top rival, Qualcomm's CDMA. That will come, though, Horowitz said, pointing to CDMA allies such as Qualcomm that are members of OHA. "It's clearly something on the roadmap, but we're not talking about specific support for it at this time," he said.
• OHA supports touch-screen technology, but Horowitz declined to comment on support for multitouch, a notable iPhone ability that opens up user-interface possibilities, beyond saying multitouch support isn't in the first version of the Android SDK.
• Google will release a new version of the Android SDK once feedback from programmers starts coming in. "We're committed to a regular release cycle," Horowitz said.
• Software should run quickly on mid-range phone hardware such as those with a 200MHz ARM 9 processor. "One of the key goals of the project was to ensure we can run on a broad range of phones that don't require a high-end processor at all," Horowitz said. "When we bring it to higher-performance devices, it's just going to scream."
• The SDK so far permits development only of software that runs on the Java foundation, not natively on the hardware itself. "We are aware of the interest in native application development, but we having nothing to comment on right now," Horowitz said. But performance shouldn't be an issue: "Our system is designed to take full advantage of native code in performance-critical areas and expose this functionality through our framework APIs."
Marguerite Reardon and Dawn Kawamoto contributed to this report.
Correction: An earlier version of this blog misstated Google's connection to the JCP. Google is a member of the Java Community Process, though not for the Java Mobile Edition version to which the Android software is most closely related.
Hardware prototype with an early look at the Android OS
(Credit: Google)Google released the Android SDK earlier today, which has no doubt sent aspiring programmers and developers in a downloading frenzy trying to get a piece of the proverbial Google pie. But here's what you, the consumer, would really want to know: An Android phone will most likely support a webkit-compatible browser, Wi-Fi, GSM technology (like EDGE and HSDPA), 3G, threaded text messaging, a photo gallery (with a filmstrip plus grid album view), plus a touch screen. Hardware is really up in the air at this point, but we did catch a glimpse of a couple of hardware prototypes included in the SDK--one has a full QWERTY keyboard, and the other has a touch screen. The SDK also included an emulator so you could check out the user interface without having a phone. Of course, this is just an early look, and the final user interface may be completely different. That said, it's still cool to take an inside look at what Android may look like in the future. Here's a more detailed list of what's in the Android SDK. Also, take a look at our slide show for more images and screenshots.
The Google Android logo
(Credit: Google)Google on Monday released programming tools for its Android mobile-phone alliance for download, giving developers the ability to start writing software for phones due to start shipping in 2008 and $10 million in prizes to lure them.
The software development kit (SDK), an open-source package available for download for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X machines, shows that Java is indeed the programming language for software running on the Linux-based phones.
Accompanying the SDK is a raft of details that wasn't available when Google and its partners announced the Open Handset Alliance a week ago. The Android software includes the Google-created Dalvik virtual machine for running Java programs, a browser based on the WebKit engine, and support for many media and image file formats. (Note: I clarified that the browser is only based on the WebKit engine.)
And hardware abilities permitting, it also supports wireless communications using GSM mobile-phone technology, 3G, Edge, 802.11 Wi-Fi networks. Conspicuously missing from the list is the widely used CDMA mobile-phone technology developed by Qualcomm.
To jump-start the Android programming effort, Google is offering $10 million total in prizes, each ranging from $25,000 to $275,000, to programmers picked by a panel of judges.
A diagram of the inner workings of Google's Android software for mobile phones.
(Credit: Google)Android programmers can use the open-source Eclipse programming tool, founded by IBM and now supported by many companies, along with an Android plug-in for Eclipse.
The SDK includes an emulator so programmers can write software even without phone hardware. However, as programmer Jason Chen cautions on his blog, "The look and feel of the user interface in the emulator is a placeholder for a final version that is under development."
The SDK also describes application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable programmers to take advantage of underlying support for location-based services, video and audio streaming and playback, and 3D graphics. However, support for Bluetooth and 802.11 wireless networking APIs isn't yet available, though they'll be added to the SDK, the site said.
Google mentions support for two APIs for using Google services, too: Google Maps for displaying maps and XMPP for device-to-device communication tasks such as playing checkers.
Federal Communications Chairman Kevin Martin on Tuesday threw his support behind Google's Open Handset Alliance.
On Monday, Google officially unveiled Android, its new mobile phone software. It also announced the Open Handset Alliance. Thirty-four companies have said they will join the alliance, which will work on developing applications on the Android platform. Members of the alliance include mobile handset makers HTC and Motorola, mobile operators T-Mobile and Sprint-Nextel, and chipmaker Qualcomm.
It should come as little surprise that Martin would support the alliance. Earlier this year, he made open devices a requirement in the rules for the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction, which are expected to get under way in January 2008. Essentially, the rules will require winners of the spectrum in certain slivers of the 700MHz to be required to allow any device to connect to the network.
"As I noted when we adopted open network rules for our upcoming spectrum auction, I continue to believe that more openness, at the network, device, or application level, helps foster innovation and enhances consumers' freedom and choice in purchasing wireless service," he said a statement.
Google, which lobbied for open access rules for the 700MHz rules, is planning on bidding on some of the spectrum licenses. Even if it doesn't win any of these licenses, the new Android software could put Google in a prime position to be one of the main suppliers of software to handset makers that could help them comply with the FCC requirement.
I co-hosted the Buzz Out Loud podcast with Molly Wood today. Topic (suprise): Gphone. What else? Also covered: Why the Asus eee PC rocks and why the Foleo was killed too early.
(Credit:
Open Handset Alliance)
Like a number of my colleagues here at CNET, I had my ear pressed to the phone yesterday morning as the members of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), including Google, Motorola, and HTC, revealed their plans for Android, a new open platform for mobile devices. I'm not here to recap all the details of the event here--CNET News.com has a comprehensive story on that--but rather just to jot down some of my thoughts.
Looking at the big picture, I welcome today's news. I think it's a really interesting move for all the parties involved, and I certainly feel that the Android project will lead to more innovative products--both handsets and applications. More importantly, it gives the consumer more power and choice when it comes to buying cell phones and smartphones. But it also raised a lot of questions. One of the first ones that popped into my head is how will Android affect the other mobile operating systems--Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian, BlackBerry, and Apple. Will they suffer? Compete head-to-head? Or will they join the Open Handset Alliance?
During the press conference, one reporter asked how Android differs from all the other operating systems and I can't recall who responded but the answer was that Android is an open platform and open to third-party developers. Well, OK, but so does Symbian. Symbian really prides itself on this fact, but it hasn't enjoyed widespread adoption here in the United States. Part of the problem is that there are only a limited number of Symbian smartphones available on this side of the pond. Nokia and Sony Ericsson use Symbian, but for whatever reason, U.S. carriers have been reluctant to pick up any of these models. Sure, you can still get them but you often have to pay a steep $400 to $700 for an unlocked version. I don't know about you, but I don't have nor do I want to drop that much money for a cell phone. With this limited visibility and adoption rate in the States, I think Symbian will take the biggest hit. Sadly, I think the Google association alone gives Android more name recognition than Symbian.
And the others? Well, Palm just seems like a sinking ship, though I know it still enjoys a loyal following. Palm/Access needs to breathe some new life into the OS in order for it to keep afloat. I also noticed that the OHA kept focusing on the potential Web browsing capabilities of Android, which is great, but also leaves me to wonder how it will handle corporate e-mail, personal information management, and productivity apps--something Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices do very well. And CNET News.com's Tom Krazit has an interesting take on how Android will (or won't) affect the Apple iPhone.
Without knowing what Android will entail, it's hard to tell how it will shake things up, but like I said before, I welcome it. I think it can only benefit the consumers. The next few months should be interesting, and I can't wait!
