Google Delaying Mobile Software Android
posted by: Vlad Akilov
Google may dominate the online world, but they are finding out the hard way that jumping into the mobile phone industry is a different story entirely.
In November, Google, along with more than 30 partners, announced that they would be offering handsets based off of their mobile software, Android. At the time, Google was confident that they would be able to have these phones on the market sometime during the early part of the second half of 2008. Of course, a project of this magnitude can change many times over and is based on thousands of factors. For this reason, Google has announced that the phones will not be made available to the public until sometime during the 4th quarter.
Although the project has been delayed by several months, many insiders are still reporting that many carriers are having a difficult time keeping up. The same holds true for companies that are working on programs for the Android operating system.
T-Mobile believes that they will be able to have an Android powered phone offered in the United States by the 4th quarter. That being said, since Google is working so closely with T-Mobile, it has pushed other carriers further behind. For instance, Sprint Nextel was hoping to also launch during the 4th quarter, but it now appears that they will have to wait until 2009 to move forward.
The United States mobile market is not the only one missing out due to these delays. China Mobile, a company with 400 million subscribers, had major plans to launch an Android powered phone during the 3rd quarter of 2008. This project is believed to have been put off until late this year, or early 2009.
It is safe to say that Google has a thing or two to learn about the cell phone industry. When the company’s phones finally arrive, they will be up against stiff competition from the likes of Apple as well as many others. The results are sure to attract a lot of attention!
August 12th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Hard to beat iPod, Goo…
September 4th, 2008 at 6:37 am
They rethinking strategy to compete with iPhone and Blackberry.