We knew Samsung was working on their Android handset but the whenabouts of the announcement and launch were anybodies guess (actually, we already knew). That infinite window was narrowed to “sometime in the next 5 months” by Chi Youngcho, head of the Digital Media Communications Unit at Samsung.
In a PCWorld article, Youngcho was quoted at saying, “In the first half of this year, for touch-screen phones we will expand our line-up and upgrade some of the functions including the user interface and for smart phones expand our line-up and provide various OSes to satisfy the diverse needs of our customers.”
No, Android wasn’t explicitly mentioned. But he sure makes it sound like that is exactly what we can expect… a first half 2009 Samsung Android launch. Of couse there is the possibility that we’re reading too deep into it or Youngcho had something else in mind but at least on the surface, it looks like we can pencil this into our calendar. Unfortunately our calendar isn’t organized into 6 month increments so we’ll just keep you posted instead.
[NOTE: The picture is of Chi Youngcho in 2007 with Giorgio Armani, holding the Samsung Armani Phone. It was included to show the source of the quote – this is NOT a picture of the Samsung Android. And Youngcho is the dude on the left… if you couldn’t tell.]