It seems like T-Mobile’s G1, built by HTC and powered by
Google’s Android, it was pretty convincing at least for some companies.
Today, 14 new companies have joined the Alliance and now we can expect
Android-powered phones from names like Sony Ericsson or ASUSTek Computer.
Among the other followers are Garmin, Huawei, Omron
Software, Softbank, Teleca AB, Toshiba and Vodafone.
The Android platform was officially launched last year, on
November 5, as a result of a collaboration between Google and HTC, Intel,
Motorola, T-Mobile, nVIDIA and Qualcomm, with one sole purpose: to develop open
standards for mobile devices. Google is working on boosting the quality of Web
browsing, enhancing the audio and video experience for mobile phones.
Initially there were 33 companies, besides Gooogle that have decided to support the Android market. However, only HTC has managed to release an Android handset, but there were reports that other companies are working as well on some new models.
The Linux-based Android has opened up broad flexibility and
ease of development for handset makers, and it is certain that the consumers
will eventually benefit greatly from the new features and the efficiency of the
hardware use by the upcoming Android handsets.
The Android platform features an application framework
enabling reuse and replacement of components, a Dalvik virtual machine
optimized for mobile devices, optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D
graphics library, 3D graphics based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification
(hardware acceleration optional), media support for common audio, video, and
still image formats (MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF) and few other
things like Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi (hardware dependent).
The first phone powered by Android was launched earlier this
year by T-Mobile in UK and United States
and the phone is expected in other Europeans market in early 2009.
T-Mobile G1 offers an 3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen, a QWERTY
keyboard, GPS, and Wi-Fi and it also provides a microSD card slot and a 3.2 megapixel
camera. It measures 4.60 inches
by 2.2 inches by 0.60 inches, and weighs 5.6 ounces.
