By Right now we’ve got the T-Mobile G1/Dream and the HTC Magic on the market with the Samsung Galaxy i7500 Officially on the way. There are a load of other handsets rumored which might bring the total number of potential devices floating around to about… 8 or 9. So how many Android Phones will launch by the end of 2009?
Does 18 to 20 Android Phones sound good? Great, because that is exactly how many phones Andy Rubin, Google’s Head of Mobile, said will launch by the end of the year. The Great Android Flood of 2009 is inevitable and it appears as though it really could be “The Year of the Android” – although after the past 5 months most everybody had doubts.
At least worldwide. Rubin indicated that adoption of Android would occur more rapidly overseas, specifically in Europe and the UK, as the competitive US market works more selectively to differentiate their Android offerings. I would say that’s a bummer, but it is hard to see the downside amidst a Head Android saying 20 phones will be out this year when we’ve only got 2 out now.
I’m finding it hard to grasp the concept. Phandroid has been up and running since late 2007 with plenty of material, arguably TOO much material, with only 2 phones coming out over that period of time. If 20 Android Phones are out by the end of 2009… we’re going to have a LOT of fun. And need a lot of help (contributors, tipsters, ahem!).
By the way, Rubin made it clear that Android Phones can come in three base flavors:
- Google-free
- Strings attached
- The Google Experience
The “Google Experience” phones get the “with Google” branding while the Strings-attached still have Google Apps pre-loaded but the level of integration is a bit more lax. According to Rubin, about 14 of the phones launched this year will be “strings attached” and 5 or 6 will be “Google Experience” phones. I suppose it is impossible to calculate how many phones will be Google-free since any manufacturer can potentially slap on Android and sell it.
Now I’m craving today’s Keynote, hoping that some new Android Phones are announced. Pretty please with cupcakes and donuts on top?
[Via NYT]
I’m really afraid that one day there might not be any “with Google” phones out. :'( That would suck really bad.
I hate carriers sometimes.
“…adoption of Android would occur more rapidly overseas, specifically in Europe and the UK”
You know, the UK is in Europe…
@Andy – correct me if I’m wrong but things tend to launch in the UK and then roll out in other parts of Europe afterwards. That is the point I was trying to make and I assumed the concept would be easily grasped. Apologies.
Is it safe to start calling the US version of the HTC Magic, a HTC Ion? Also, I wonder if that would be considered two phones… because I seem to re-call that the camera might be a little better… so if you have 1 phone and alter the hardware just a little bit, name it something new, then BOOM, Google just beefed up its resume.
@Andy C:
I work for Ryanair and there isn’t a single day a UK citizen consider him/herself European.
They always do things differently and regarding Android, it will be the same.
So yes, EU and UK seem to be two different realms.
Im from the UK and i dont consider myself to be part of Europe, we have the £ they have the euro, is just one of the many big differences. But i dont mind if you call me europian haha
Maybe it should have been “EU and/or UK”. Much of the laws are governed by EU. but we can opt out, as with the Euro. Some stuff is launched here and others elsewhere. So it doesn’t matter how Android is launched.
In a way off shoot – adjunct topic. Japan is where all new technology gets launch. (3g in 2001, digital TV phones, 4g in 2010) so the quote should be, “adoption of Android would occur more rapidly overseas, specifically in Japan then finally Europe and/or the UK