April 3, 2009 by Tap
At last, some decent Android-related news out of CTIA 2009. It seems that Samsung's plans are progressing nicely and although they had nothing to show at the event, it looks like we can expect their first handset to be released in Europe this June. Could that be the one Orange was referring to as coming shortly after the HTC Hero?
According to Dr. Won-Pyo Hong, executive vice president of global product strategy in the company's mobile communication division, Samsung plans to release several Android devices this year. In addition to the European phone, the company will roll out another two devices in the US, most likely with T-Mobile and Sprint.
Just as interesting as the news of new phones were comments regarding why Samsung has been relatively slow to market their Android phones. It seems that this had less to do with Samsung and more to do with operators who, although keen on Android, are less enthusiastic about the operating system's close association with Google. As a result, Samsung has made a clear distinction between Android phones and 'Google Experience' phones, and chosen the former. What this means in real terms is that although still running Android, Samsung's phones may look and operate differently to what we've become accustomed to with the G1 and Magic.
Source: Forbes
March 17, 2009 by Tap
It looks like Sprint subscribers are not going to be seeing any Android-based smartphones any time soon. That's according to PhoneNews who claim to have received a leaked copy of Sprint's 2009 Roadmap. Of most interest to Android fans is the 2009 Smartphone Roadmap.
Don't get too excited about seeing Android mentioned on the slide - they've just lumped Linux/Android/Google into one category and the Palm P100 mentioned is actually the Palm Pre which will run Palm's Linux-based webOS. Trust me, the chances of Palm producing an Android phone are less than zero.
There have been concerns voiced about the authenticity of this information and of course roadmaps can always change but as things stand right now, you can forget about seeing anything Android-based on Sprint this year.