HTC Dreaming of Android

[Nurhisham Hussein]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/20/HTC-names-Google-phone-Dream_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/20/HTC-names-Google-phone-Dream_1.html' target='_blank'>http://www.infoworld.com/article/08...ne-Dream_1.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The mobile phone High Tech Computer (HTC) has been developing to run on the Android software from Google will be called "Dream," and it will have a large touchscreen and full QWERTY keypad, a person close to the situation said Thursday...HTC's Google handset is just over 5 inches long and 3 inches wide, with a keypad underneath the screen that either slides out or swivels out. The aim of the keypad is for easy e-mail, note-taking, and writing Web addresses. Internet navigational controls are situated below the screen on the handset."</i><br /><br />There were a few prototypes of Android on show at MWC, but they were at best described as proof of concept rather than anything approaching a production device - bare circuit boards and an LCD don't quite make the cut as a consumer must-have ;). HTC of course were one of the first companies to announce development of an Android device, and it looks like they're going to be first to market as well. At the dimensions mentioned, that would make something on the size of an O2 Flame, with very likely a 3.5"/3.7" screen, and the presence of the keyboard means this won't be fashionably thin. Taking all that together, this appears more like Intel's concept of a MID device, especially with the Linux kernel in the background. The plot thickens!

[Phrish]

I really, really hope that Android will be the answer to the mobile OS market. I'm very excited about seeing the products start to roll out, and very happy HTC and Samsung are right at the forefront.

Microsoft is pathetically lazy with Windows Mobile. The OS is unstable, memory hoggish, not exactly intuitive, and many of the MS apps (Internet Explorer, PowerPoint, etc.) are so lagged behind current technology that it boggles me that they are still found in new phones.

Then someone comes along like Palm, or Apple, or Google, that challenges Windows Mobile and MS wakes up just enough to update their technology to last year, trying to convince us that they're doing everything they can to be on the bleeding edge?

I say good for Apple, coming out with the iPhone. Light a fire under MS's rear end! However, it's closed, and despite Apple announcing their SDK, the phone is still closed technology at its very foundation.

That's why I'm so excited about Android. The hardware is open, the OS is open, the SDK is open, the door is open, it's not network restricted. Everything about Android is open. That's what's so exciting about it!!!

Forget about lighting a fire under MS's quite ample derrie aire. I hope Android duct tapes a napalm bomblette to MS's bottom!

Only time will tell though. Other reporters and forum'ers have observed that creating a "platform" can be among the hardest things to do, and do successfully. If anyone can, Google can give it a go. I wish them nothing but success.

[Dyvim]

I hope Google Android brings us lots of good things and pushes Apple and MS to do better with their Mobile OS, but I'm not going to feel very optimistic until I start seeing some real phones. Open is all well and good and lovey-dovey, touchy-feely, but at the end of the day I don't know how far it will go. I mean Linux is open-source, but it hasn't exactly taken the desktop computing world by storm. I'm afraid that Android will be the equivalent of Linux for smart phones. Some techno-geeks would really like that, but I'd take a pass (and so would the average joe).

But fingers crossed and I'm eager to see HTC's Dream made reality.

[developerzero]

Am I the only person who realizes what a BAD thing this is? With a third (well, fourth if you count the iJunk) OS on the market, companies will have to spread their money out even thinner then they already are. We will start seeing a decrease in quality in the devices that are coming out, because they will all be more expensive and time-intensive to manufactue.

Consider: If HTC weren't wasting (probably) MILLIONS of dollars and thousands of man-hours making this new piece of trash, we might actually have drivers for the TyTN II. Now, they'll probably never come, and this will become more and more common.

This sounds more like a NIGHTMARE to me.

[wshwe]

Google Search is closed because they're far and away the market leader. In phones they're the underdog, so they can't be closed.