October 2nd, 2008
Android sucks oxygen from mobile broadband room
Just a week after launch the Google Android design is already sucking the oxygen from the mobile broadband market room.
Palm and Symbian are gasping for breath. Microsoft and LiMo are breathing hard. RIM seems to be holding its breath. Only Apple is still smiling.
Palm is under increased pressure to quit the mobile operating system race and throw in with Android. Nokia is now thinking of going along with Motorola and releasing Android kit. The Blackberry remains a narrow-band device.
Both Matt and I offered some snark against Microsoft yesterday, and the LiMo SDK is not coming out until year-end.
What makes the market potentially competitive is the fact that AT&T and Apple now define the handheld broadband experience. Other carriers are desperate to compete. So are other handset makers.
Google is demonstrating its own Android applications and dealers are appearing before users can even get their hands on devices.
Handset makers are used to having new product out every three months and tend to render it obsolete within six months. The carriers’ wait for something that can compete with the iPhone has been excruciating.
If other handheld operating system vendors don’t step up soon, Android may be all that’s left.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
| 10/02/08
