Posts Tagged ‘year’

Sprint’s Dan Hesse says Android coming to Sprint this year, is glad to have waited

Friday, July 24th, 2009

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While speaking at Fortune’s Brainstorm: Tech event in Pasadena on Friday, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse apparently got all kinds of verbal when it came to Android and his carrier. The honcho (and TV commercial star) remarked at the industry conference that he was “Glad we waited on Android,” adding “The reviews say now it’s ready for prime time. It wasn’t when it first came out.” While we knew Sprint had interest in Android phones (and potentially some forthcoming models), we hadn’t heard a peep about timeframes, and the last thing Dan had to say was that he thought Googlephones weren’t quite ready for prime-time. That’s all changed now with the appearance of Android 1.5, it seems, as Hesse stated that the carrier will ship at least one model with the OS onboard this year. We don’t want to be zany conspiracy theorists, but the timing of this seems to dovetail nicely with the very public launch of HTC’s heavily modified Hero and Sense UI… a device which has been rumored to be making its way to Sprint sometime this year. The carrier obviously has a storied history of partnering with HTC on phones, so it wouldn’t come as a surprise to see it land on Sprint (we certainly haven’t seen any other carriers pipe up). Regardless, it looks like Sprint won’t be putting all of its eggs in the Palm basket for long. It’s going to be a very interesting holiday season.

Sprint’s Dan Hesse says Android coming to Sprint this year, is glad to have waited originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google: 18 Android phones coming this year, possibly more

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

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18 Android phones, possibly 20 on the market this year according to Andy Rubin, speaking at Google I/O. Even higher if you count all the rogue, Google App-free Android deployments that Google’s not aware of. Seeing as how we’re already nearly half-way through the year with just a pair of Android handsets on the market (the T-Mobile G1, HTC Magic) and just another — the Samsung i7500 Galaxy — officially in the chute, we’re going to see a flood of product before year’s end. In fact, Rubin claims the releases will come from 8 or 9 manufacturers with faster adoption seen in Europe as US carriers try to “create highly distinctive versions of the Android phone to give themselves an edge.” Sure, edge, if that’s what you want to call the US cartel of hoops and handcuffs then go right ahead. Interestingly, Rubin also further clarified the three flavors of Android which break down as follows:

  • Google-free: Free to download version of Android without Google applications like Gmail or Google Calendar. Access to Android applications is at the whimsical fancy of the manufacturer.
  • Strings attached: Same as above but manufacturers sign a distribution agreement with Google and pre-install the Google applications. Of Rubin’s possible 20 phones, 12 to 14 fall into this category
  • The Google Experience: Phones featuring the Google logo with all Google apps installed and includes unrestricted access (neither the carrier nor handset maker can block applications they find objectionable) to the Android market. 5 or 6 of the 20, Android phone mentioned by Rubin will deliver the full Google Experience as god and Sergey designed it.

Go ahead, blow it out Google, we’re ready for it.

Google: 18 Android phones coming this year, possibly more originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 28 May 2009 05:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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