Open Handset Alliance: 47 Members. 1 Phone.
by John Paczkowski
Posted on December 9, 2008 at 10:36 AM PT
You wouldn’t know it from the number of Android handsets on the market, but support for Google’s (GOOG) new mobile operating system is growing. This morning, Open Handset Alliance, a coterie of tech companies dedicated to promoting the OS, added 14 new partners to its roster. Among them, device manufacturers like Sony Ericsson and Toshiba, chipmakers like ARM (ARMH) and Atheros (ATHR), and carriers like Softbank and Vodafone (VOD). With OHA already counting T-Mobile, Motorola (MOT), Sprint Nextel (S), NTT Docomo (DCM), HTC, Qualcomm (QCOM), Intel (INTC) and Samsung as members, it lacks only AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ) and Nokia (NOK). Glaring omissions, these. AT&T and Verizon are the two largest carriers in the states, and Nokia controls more than a third of the handset market. Still, the Android ecosystem is clearly well established. Now if the OHA could only begin populating it with a few more handsets beyond the T-Mobile G1, currently its lone inhabitant.
Follow John on Twitter | Follow AllThingsD on Twitter
Comments
google’s goal is to take over the mobile market with search and ad words
any mobile carrier or handset maker that does a deal with google, or embraces it technology in any way, is slitting its own wrists
Posted by Sam Harrison at December 9th, 2008 at 12:24 pmUgh nice analysis.
Yeah, the G1 the only one out right now and that needs to change, but the platform was just announced in November 2007, the full source code was released in early 2008, and the product cycle for new handsets is about 18 months.
Posted by john Dorian at December 9th, 2008 at 1:56 pmIf Google can reduce the cost of owning a cell phone by running ads, more power to them.
Any company who’s initials aren’t Apple had better be on this list. meanwhile, Apple would do well to open up their phone for use by other carriers.
I think ultimately Apple is going to lose this one, but they will make a lot of money while the others catch up. There is no way the entire smart phone market can be owned by one company, but Apple caught the others resting on their laurels.
Nokia is under the mistaken belief that they can roll their own iPhone competitor out of some variation on the N95+N800. They started with the right OS, but have taken too long to build a compelling user interface (or an actual phone that uses it).
Most “average” people (a group I am proud to belong to) don’t want to pay a lot extra for a telephone that can also browse the web.
It makes perfect sense that if I’m going to be out and about using a telephone to select where to eat, where the nearest hardware store is, etc. then the cost of using that phone should be subsidized (indirectly) by the companies that benefit from all that increased business.
Locking users into an AT$T network is a non-starter for many people. If Apple can’t figure this out, then someone surely will.
Ultimately Apple may once again drown in its own overwhelming need for “exclusivity” in various aspects of their business.
Posted by Mac Beach at December 9th, 2008 at 6:20 pm