Google on Tuesday announced a slew of significant additions to its Open Handset Alliance,
BusinessWeek reports. Telecom giant Vodafone, equipment maker Ericsson and handset maker Sony Ericsson
have all signed onto the consortium, which will develop mobile phone software for the Google mobile operating system, Android. Other additions included AKM Semiconductor, ARM, ASUSTek Computer,
Atheros Communications, Borqs, Garmin International Inc., Huawei Technologies, Omron Software Co. Ltd, Softbank Mobile Corp., Teleca AB and Toshiba Corp. In all, Google added 14 new OHA
members.
What does this mean?
BusinessWeek's Olga Kharif says the impressive additions indicate that, "sales of the first Android-based phone, the T-Mobile G1, must be going very
well." The iPhone competitor is expected to sell around 500,000 units this year.
As Kharif points out, the cost of building Android-powered handsets is lower than those using Nokia and
Microsoft's operating systems. More importantly, she says that by joining the OHA, handset makers are effectively expressing their dissatisfaction with Android's long-established rivals, Nokia's
Symbian and Microsoft's Windows Mobile software. "No wonder," says Kharif. "Symbian is going through a major restructuring, and it's unclear exactly what it will look like come next year. Microsoft
has been losing developer interest, sources tell me." Bottom line, she says, is that until yesterday, Android's future looked uncertain
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