Google's Android

[Shadows]

Tue Jun 2, 2009 12:11pm EDT
By Kelvin Soh

Acer Inc, the world's No. 3 PC brand, plans to sell netbook PCs that run on Google's Android operating system, posing a potential threat to Microsoft's Windows.

Acer was the first PC vendor to officially announce that it was making Android PCs, weeks after it said it planned to launch smartphones -- mobile phones packed with advanced computer-like capabilities -- on the same platform later this year.

"Today's netbooks are not close to perfection at all. In two years, it will all be very different," Jim Wong, Acer's global president for IT products, told a news conference at Computex, the world's second-largest PC trade show held in Taipei.

"If we do not continue to change our mobile Internet devices, consumers may not choose then any more."

Wang declined to give any shipment targets or prices for the Android netbooks, which will run on Intel's low-cost and low-performance Atom processor, but said the company would continue to ship netbooks with Microsoft Windows.

Netbooks are stripped-down PCs optimized for surfing the internet, and usually cost around $300 each. A computer running on Android could be cheaper as analysts have previously said PC brands pay about $25 to install Windows XP into each netbook.

Android could cost less as its open source nature means developers and brands are free to use it and change it to suit their own needs.

"When we are doing this new Android netbook, we are not going to make the other one go away," Wong said. "Both systems will still remain available to customers, and one will not go away because of the other."

Analysts said it was still too early to say whether Android could really threaten the dominance of the Windows operating system in the PC world, pointing to an absence of software and applications that support Android.

"We'll still have to see what kind of applications the Android software can run on and how stable it'll be," said Vincent Chen, an analyst at Yuanta Securities.

Android, an open-source software that is meant for mobile phones, was first used by HTC in its smartphones, but many PC brands, such as netbook pioneer Asustek, have expressed interest in using it in its netbook computers.

The announcement came after Taiwan's market closed. Acer's shares ended 0.83 percent higher, outperforming a 0.07 percent decline in the main TAIEX index.

[Shadows]

T-Mobile eyes next Android device for early summer

Tue Jun 2, 2009 1:36pm EDT

T-Mobile, the mobile arm of Deutsche Telekom, said on Tuesday it would start selling its next device running Google Inc's Android operating system in early summer.

T-Mobile USA, the No. 4 U.S. mobile service, said it has sold more than a million G1 phones, made by HTC Corp since it started selling them last year.

"T-Mobile is planning to offer the follow-on device to the T-Mobile G1 early this summer," the company said in an e-mailed statement that did not give any more details about the device.

The news comes days before Palm Inc is scheduled to launch its Pre phone and new webOS operating system, which is a rival to Android. Apple Inc is also expected to announce a new version of iPhone next week.

[jamez707]

Microsoft will be upset

[m1n1on]

Yeh I'm waiting until there are more companies making android phones before I get one. Competition is always good on the hip pocket

HTC Dream is out at the moment (with the slide out keyboard), the HTC Magic with the on screen keyboard is the one I'm looking out for.

[bumblebee]

Holy thread revival Batman