More details about Google's mobile plans rolled out yesterday afternoon. To recap, Google has buddied up with 34 different partners in the technology space (including NVIDIA, Intel, Texas Instruments, Synaptics, Marvell, Qualcomm, Motorola, Samsung, T-Mobile, Sprint, Skype, LG, HTC, KDDI, DoCoMo and China Mobile) to create the Open Handset Alliance (OHA)--a group focused on building an open, fully customizable alternative to closed operating systems like Windows Mobile 6, Symbian S60 and the iPhone OS. The OHA's first product will be Android, an open-source mobile OS and associated application suite that's built on the Linux operating system (and will be open-sourced via the Apache v2 License). The Android SDK will be made available to developers on November 12th and Android-sporting handsets will flood the market next year, from device manufacturers like HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung. These handsets will be available during the second half of 2008 in the U.S. (from T-Mobile USA and Sprint) China, Japan, Germany, Italy and Spain. As has been reported earlier, the Android OS will be targeted toward consumers and will be available to OEMs free of charge (the OS will be ad-supported, like all of Google's other apps).
For more on Google's plans:
- check out these promotional videos from the company
- read this blog post from Google
- read how Android might affect IT departments (WSJ sub. req.)
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