Android Hits More Meaningful Milestones

by Sam Dean - Sep. 16, 2009Comments (1)

Only a few months ago, in March, I wrote a post called "Why is Android Stalled?" It's hard to believe how much momentum the open source mobile operating system has gathered since then. The past couple of weeks have included a number of new milestones for Android, including promising new smartphones based on it, and an update to the operating system itself that adds several notable features. Here are the details.

Motorola's Android Bets. Last week, we covered the announcement of Motorola's far-reaching Android platform play, and its first two smartphones based on the operating system. The Cliq phone from Motorola is generating lots of buzz for its "MotoBlur" social networking portal features. Check out JKOnTheRun's interview on the Cliq phone and Android with Motorola CEO Dr. Sanjay Jha here.

A New Android. As announced on the Android Developers blog, the "Donut" version 1.6 update to Android is available now as an SDK. According to the developers: "With support for CDMA and additional screen sizes, your apps can be deployed on even more mobile networks and devices. You will have access to new technologies, including framework-level support for additional screen resolutions, like QVGA and WVGA, new telephony APIs to support CDMA, gesture APIs, a text-to-speech engine, and the ability to integrate with Quick Search Box." You can find a complete overview of the new features here.

Archos' Experiments. Archos has confirmed that it will be producing an Android-based "tablet phone." The 3G phone will feature a 4.3-inch display, and a thin design. It comes on the heels of Archos' Android video player, which went on sale yesterday, and is getting solid reviews for its facility with HD video, and more. It could be a hot holiday seller, and I want one.

LG Signs On. Speaking of the holidays, electronics giant LG has announced that it will ship its LG-GW620 Android smartphone before the end of the year. It will have a 3-inch touchscreen, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It's got a slick design, and is shown above.

All told, there should be approximately 20 new Android handsets for sale by the end of the year, applications on Android Market continue to proliferate, and non-phone devices are showing up. Android definitely isn't stalled anymore.


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1 Comments
 

Android has never been stalled; you just got impatient. Lots of stuff has been going on behind the scenes.


Coming next: Android in cars.


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