Google Android mobiles face lengthy delays

By Davey Winder
Monday, 23 June 2008 16:54

Strategy

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal the much hyped mobile phones powered by open source Android software will not be arriving this year as expected. What's more, it seems that application compatibility could be a problem as developers get increasingly frustrated with Google.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the promise of Android powered mobile handsets being delivered within a month or two will not be met. In fact, the newspaper suggests that we will be lucky to see any handsets at all until next year.

This is in stark contrast to the optimistic hyperbole that emerged after the meeting between Google and some 30 partners last November when Android was officially announced to the waiting world. The Open Handset Alliance said at the time that the first devices using the Android platform would be in the shops by the 2nd half of 2008.

Things have, however, gone very quiet since November 12th when the Android SDK was released. That was also the last time the Open Handset Alliance published a press release, according to its website.

Mind you, I guess it is not surprising that they are not drawing media attention to the fact that most networks are privately suggesting a deadline of anytime this year is now unrealistic. The Wall Street Journal suggests that T-Mobile USA may well be the only network to hit a handset release by the very end of this year. And Taiwan's HTC one of the few manufacturers expected to hit a handset delivery target.

Sprint Nextel has apparently abandoned its plans to launch until into 2009, and problems with the development of a Chinese language version of the OS have meant that China Mobile is expected to follow that same time scale.