Now That Is Where the Power of Android Is: Motorola Prepares Its Own Android-Powered Smartphone
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on October 20, 2008,
It is always a little funny to watch people constantly compare iPhone with the first ever phone powered with Google’s Android operating system - the G1 manufactured by HTC for T-Mobile. People continue setting the two devices against each other like these comparisons actually make sense while in reality they don’t: iPhone is the device manufactured by Apple while Android is an operating system that can be (and will eventually be) installed on any new device by any manufacturer.
The key here is that even if a customer is not happy with the looks of T-Mobile G1, it is always possible to wait for the next device powered with Android. This is where Android’s power actually is and this is why it is very good to hear both rumors and facts of the major mobile phones manufacturers entering the Android game.
Today’s news is that Motorola is working on an Android device of its own to start shipping in the 2nd quarter of the next year. BusinessWeek reports that the device will have a touch screen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard so it will probably be somewhat similar to HTC-manufactured G1. The publication also mentions that sources tell it that the phone will likely start shipping in the US some time in the second quarter of 2009 with Motorola supposedly talking to carriers around the world for a couple of months already.
It is also expected to be cheaper than both iPhone and T-Mobile G1 - sold for something similar to Motorola’s first touch screen device Krave (priced at $150).
But the most important part about the phone is that it is to be very much focused on social networking with dedicated integration with social networks (Facebook and MySpace) where the phone will be used to easily contact friends from these networks right from the phone’s contact list. Of course this may not make sense for Motorola to work on these integrations when open-source Android platform is supposed to be very friendly to developers willing to work on any applications to enhance and broaden the phone’s functionality.
But Motorola seems not to want to rely on third-party application developers and has a certain understanding of how its own Android device should work. My guess is that Motorola probably aims to make the social nature of the phone a special selling point - hence the team working on Android application to add to those that come pre-loaded on G1 for now. Other than marketing I can’t see any reasons for the hardware manufacturer to be engaged in development of social networking applications but I am sure that the marketing people with Motorola have done their research well and know such a functionality is actually needed and will help boost sales for such a new social phone.
