[Jason Dunn]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25329776/

"Mobile phones under development by Google Inc. and its partners face slipping delivery schedules, with the first phones not likely to arrive until late 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Google had said eight months ago that the first phones to be built under the Android partnership umbrella would come out in the second half of 2008 and commitments from various handset makers and carriers appear to support this initial commitment."



Windows Mobile faces a lot of competition in the marketplace: RIM, Apple, and now Google's Android OS. Windows Mobile devices outsell RIM devices, so the battle with RIM is more about mind-share and dislodging them from the enterprise space. Lately we've talked about the challenges that the iPhone brings to Windows Mobile, so I won't rehash those discussions, but we haven't talked much about Android. The initial demos of it look decent, though nothing too mind-blowing. And there's much more to building a platform that just releasing an OS - how well Android does depends largely on the execution of it's hardware partners, and the quality of the software development that springs up around it. Sound familiar? That's exactly the scenario Windows Mobile has always been in - and we know that hardware can make or break a phone experience.

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25329776/

"Mobile phones under development by Google Inc. and its partners face slipping delivery schedules, with the first phones not likely to arrive until late 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Google had said eight months ago that the first phones to be built under the Android partnership umbrella would come out in the second half of 2008 and commitments from various handset makers and carriers appear to support this initial commitment."



Windows Mobile faces a lot of competition in the marketplace: RIM, Apple, and now Google's Android OS. Windows Mobile devices outsell RIM devices, so the battle with RIM is more about mind-share and dislodging them from the enterprise space. Lately we've talked about the challenges that the iPhone brings to Windows Mobile, so I won't rehash those discussions, but we haven't talked much about Android. The initial demos of it look decent, though nothing too mind-blowing. And there's much more to building a platform that just releasing an OS - how well Android does depends largely on the execution of it's hardware partners, and the quality of the software development that springs up around it. Sound familiar? That's exactly the scenario Windows Mobile has always been in - and we know that hardware can make or break a phone experience.

[onlydarksets]

I'm not sure where WSJ gets that the handsets are delayed, when they are apparently coming out at the same time as they always said.

I agree with this being the closest parallel for WM. However, if Android is not a resource hog, this could be the biggest challenge for WM, since manufacturers could release the same hardware with each OS.

As always, though, the proof will be in the enterprise...

[jeisner]

Software development is doing extremely well considering no phone has even been released yet..

So much the opposite of Apples approach, open vs excessive control...

[Muntasser]

IF google is designing the OS then you can rest assured that their team will not rest until every line of code is a work of art. I'm predicting Android to be fastest and most stable OS to ever hit mobile devices and should give Apples excellent iPhone interface a run for its money.

[efjay]

Why is there such a difference in philosophy between the WM designers and other OS designers? It seems WM designers are not considered to be as demanding or meticulous as other OS designers which may be a legitimate feeling given the amount of bugs in WM and their apparent reluctance/inability to fix them. With Nokia buying Symbian and looking to take that OS open source will WM even be relevant in a few years time?