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Google's Android Phone and the Four Wireless Carriers

gizmodo.com — The opening volley of official announcements from Google and the Open Handset Alliance bring good news for people sick of the carrier choke hold.

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  • addurobi, on 11/07/2007, -20/+14What about us, Canadians up north?
    • NeoSporin, on 11/06/2007, -15/+9Jealous of our dollar
      • addurobi, on 11/06/2007, -7/+2Word.
      • Mongo61, on 11/06/2007, -1/+9Except the US dollar is worth 93 cents Canadian (as of 11/5/2007). And dropping.
        Now who's jealous?
        Thanks, W!
      • cstrippie, on 11/06/2007, -1/+5Wow, I thought the sarcasm in that statement to be obvious, but apparently others missed it.
    • sarge96, on 11/07/2007, -17/+2You're not living in a real country, so it doesn't matter. Call your queen and complain.
      • xXKobaXx, on 11/06/2007, -3/+8Yeah, umm, Canada isn't a real country eh? The US does trade with us all the time, so the next time you think of Canada as "not a real country", try checking what you get from Canada, and then live without it. Quoting Stephen Colbert, because you are the stereotypical American that makes all the great Americans look bad, "What about Planet America?".
        On a side note, Canada will probably get this Google Phone stuff a little while later, just like the iPhone, which is supposed to be coming this holiday season to Canada.
      • addurobi, on 11/07/2007, -0/+6Well it's true. We get things after they are tested and bug free in countries no one cares about - the US for example.
    • AndrewWiggin, on 11/06/2007, -0/+9People digging down addurobi's comment are digging into Canada for what reason?
  • D3koy, on 11/07/2007, -0/+34I did a Ctrl+F for Sprint, and my heart skipped a beat...We finally get something worthwhile...After years of ***** phones and a ***** network I have something to look forward to in the Cellphone department....
    • NeonElixir, on 11/07/2007, -1/+6I know. I'm psyched. I pray that they don't try to lock it down a bunch.
    • orion846, on 11/06/2007, -0/+3people usually stop paying places and go somewhere else when they hate everything about them, as opposed to continually giving them checks for years - you have nobody to blame for your last few years of crappy cell phone usage besides yourself
  • bullsfan03, on 11/13/2007, -10/+18Dugg because i see a Verizon Logo :)
  • colincornaby, on 11/07/2007, -2/+50Google has already said the carriers will be free to lock down the phones as they please. In other words, Google phones will suck badly on Verizon.
    • skyshock1, on 11/06/2007, -2/+5Just Verizon?
    • TiMMY8765, on 11/07/2007, -1/+13google phone + crappy red UI = failure
    • phaed, on 11/07/2007, -3/+13Im sure those open source phones are gonna be hard to crack.
      /sarcasm
    • Elranzer, on 11/06/2007, -0/+7Verizon does flash their weird BREW-based custom firmware ("Red UI") on all their phones, but for the smartphones (Palm and Windows CE) they have really left the interfaces as-is. If Google's phone counts as a smartphone or PDA-style OS, I'm sure it'll be untouched by Verizon.
  • Mohdoo, on 11/06/2007, -1/+21Been hoping this would be available for Verizon :D :D :D Can't wait. I realize nothing is set in stone yet, but.. I really can't imagine Google failing where Apple has in having it be horribly exclusive.
  • MotoFly, on 11/06/2007, -1/+5Yes my very own Goophone, er, Android, is nearly within reach!
  • Slipknotic, on 11/11/2007, -10/+7Do Canadians get a Gphone?
    • AndrewWiggin, on 11/06/2007, -1/+6You're missing the point. There is no "Gphone." They've announced an OS, an SDK, and a partnership, as I understood. (probably I missed an aspect though, but the point is there is no Gphone in the sense that there is an iPhone.)
  • N3wtR0ckn13, on 11/06/2007, -2/+3hmm....November 12th. looking forward to it.
  • Hamsterpotpies, on 11/06/2007, -2/+6Time to replace my Motorola E815 from Verizon.
    • squegie, on 11/06/2007, -0/+2The E815 is a good phone. Have the same one, also from Verizon. Did Expressnet over bluetooth and all that happy jaz. Dropped it out of my pocket in the rain, ran over it with the car, and got it the next morning when I realized what had happened. The screen was cracked, but the phone still worked like a champ.
  • ItsMyWii, on 11/06/2007, -3/+14No pics. Boo.
    • ChromaVita, on 11/06/2007, -3/+12When it's software it's called a screenshot.
      • ArmandoM, on 11/06/2007, -0/+1Unless you use a camera to take the picture of the thing while it's running the software, then it's a picture.
  • seanc6610, on 11/06/2007, -0/+9Finally Verizon is going somewhere with their phones. They had the most boring phones for a while there, and skated by because of the service quality. But now, with the gPhone, and their new LG handsets coming out in the near future, they might turn out to be a major factor in furthering the development of cool, quality stuff.
  • darny, on 11/06/2007, -3/+2Sorry...I don't follow?
  • bingobongony, on 11/08/2007, -11/+5This is GREAT! Because EVERYTHING Google has released have been HUGELY successful...knocking all competitors down! EVERYTHING Google touches turns to gold! All praise Google! Another victory for them!
    • sarge96, on 11/06/2007, -1/+3Go here, and never return.
      www.thechurchofgoogle.org
    • skyshock1, on 11/06/2007, -2/+6Settle down, Beavis.
    • Bamborzled, on 11/06/2007, -0/+2You seem to think like a robot (an android to be exact), so lemme put this in a way you'll understand it:

      product.popularity != product.quality
      • bingobongony, on 11/06/2007, -2/+1And most of Google's producs are neither popular nor superior in quality.
        • Elranzer, on 11/06/2007, -0/+3Just like Apple.
        • MacParrot, on 11/08/2007, -1/+1Obviously some people like Apple or Google. So they make a choice to purchase or use products or services from those companies. And in come the trolls who prefer other products and yammer incessantly about how inferior those products that they don't use are. Please find a more constructive use of your time.
  • ZeroOrDie, on 11/07/2007, -1/+10T-Mobile, baby! Woo! I can't wait to get my hands on one of these.
  • number01, on 11/06/2007, -14/+1http://digg.com/apple/Justine_is_in_San_Fran_Kevin ... DIGG THIS TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!!!
  • nato64, on 11/06/2007, -1/+13Yay! Another phone OS with Carrier-controlled UI! We all know Verizon's UI is fantastic so this'll be great. The only difference with this OS is that Google is letting the user customize EVERYTHING. That's a wonderful idea that'll really go over very well with the masses. Just look how amazing people design their myspace pages.
    • convergent, on 11/06/2007, -1/+6I wasn't entirely sure if you were serious about all of that until i read the last sentence.
  • RedGreen1, on 11/06/2007, -1/+3T-Mo? Apparently I'm not up on the current lingo.
  • itseffinkasey, on 11/06/2007, -2/+1See I knew I was going to get screwed... I just got a new contract with t-mobile switching from ATT and now the phones with the google OS are going to come out...
  • dizilbdog, on 11/06/2007, -2/+4Uhm Read the Article VERIZON is not in on the Google Phone. They want nothing to do with it. Verizon In the End is going to have to change there Ways Soon
  • deadnoob, on 11/06/2007, -1/+2a new sidekick to come out with android would probably be pretty sick.

    too bad i have verizon.
  • Modestexcuse, on 11/06/2007, -0/+2This is wonderful news!! Great job Google and everyones ability to look past both handset and provider barriers.
  • phoomp, on 11/06/2007, -3/+1What exactly is Google software on a cellphone gonna do for me? This may possibly be more full of fluff than the iPhone (and that's alotta fluff).
    • skyshock1, on 11/06/2007, -0/+4I think if there was a GPS system integrated w/ Google Maps, that'd be worth it alone. GPS systems are frickin' expensive.
  • ShadowdStranger, on 11/06/2007, -2/+0Yay! Some CDMA love for us Altell people!
  • sarge96, on 11/06/2007, -3/+2Ok, great news for the carriers, but what will the Gphone look like? What features will it have? This article is great for carrier news, but sucks for info about the actual phone itself.
  • deadbaby, on 11/06/2007, -0/+1"When it matters, there will be HTC (and perhaps Motorola, LG and Samsung) phones that work on the networks of all four carriers."
    Is this going to stop people from going for the cheaper subsidized phones that put them into a locked contract? Probably not. Is it going to stop Verizon (assuming they partner eventually) from locking out features? Probably not. I have no clue what Google is trying to achieve here.
  • supermanred, on 11/06/2007, -1/+1Article just says different people will be able to rip us off for air time money, but doesnt say ***** about what the phone does or looks like or how the interface work. The iphone does googling and web browsing with a snazzy interface, and its an ipod too... Google has ummm one month to beat that before us Canadians rush out to buy them too!!
  • megiddo101, on 11/06/2007, -5/+1How about a real picture of the damn thing?
    • gquaglia, on 11/06/2007, -0/+3There isn't one yet. Read the ***** article.
  • macwac, on 11/06/2007, -3/+1I'll wait and see what this phone looks like and what features it will have before i go off the wall =)
  • etnu, on 11/06/2007, -1/+1It isn't "a phone" so seeing "what it looks like" wouldn't exactly be possible.

    Android is a competitor to Symbian, Windows Mobile, and other mobile operating systems -- not a direct competitor to handset manufacturers.
  • theholyraptor, on 04/07/2008, -0/+1People are talking about the picture but the picture is misleading. He discusses all the carriers but Sprint and TMobile are the ones involved directly with the Android program. Will Verizon and AT&T see some good from this? Of course, but they aren't major players, yet.
  • Ukonu, on 11/06/2007, -0/+3I'd love to be able to download the Android SDK and develop my own software ideas than will run on my cell phone but....
    The backlash is going to be crazy when the non tech-savvy users get huge bills in the mail because the spyware installed on their Android OS is calling Hong Kong at 2AM and sending hundreds of text messages to Nigeria.
  • skyshock1, on 11/06/2007, -1/+2He had me until he said this:

    "What Google is saying to carriers is that customers are grown-ups. They can own a PC for years before it's chock-full of viruses, malware and memory hogging crap they don't need. Why not give them access to a world's worth of software—and expose them to the same acknowledged risks—with their phones?"

    AHEM... except this phone OS is going to be Linux-based and therefore by the nature of the *nix platform, hardly susceptible to viruses, malware, and "memory hogging crap". Heck even Windows Mobile is fairly secure, so I don't know where this argument comes into play.
  • uziko, on 11/06/2007, -0/+2Every carrier sucks the prices are way too high, it should be unlimited minutes for 5 dollars a month until that happens they all suck, right now tmobile is the best but they still all suck. And cheaper phones I'd rather have a cheap phone then an expensive one with stupid gimmicks.
  • 9a3eedi, on 11/07/2007, -3/+1I wonder though. This is just an OS. What hardware would it run on?
  • clickmyface, on 11/07/2007, -4/+3Why I dont care:
    1) The biggest problem in the industry are the cell phone network providers. They have limited Palm, limited Apple, and they will limit "Android" just the same.
    2) Lots of companies using the same platform is innovative how?
    3) Palm, Apple and others have lead cellphone innovation with their own systems and done a damn good job.
    4) The average consumer simply doesnt care.
    • andyd273, on 11/06/2007, -0/+1I wonder though... will they be able to limit it?
      Its not always the provider that limits the phone, a lot of the time its the phone manufacturer that locks it down and says what can and can't be done.
      The way I see it, the whole point of this phone is that it will be open and unlocked straight from the manufacturer, and that anyone should be able to use it on any network without having to go through a lengthy process of unlocking/hacking the phone to do what you want with it.
      • clickmyface, on 11/06/2007, -0/+1Well they will be able to limit it if they so choose, yes, as noted by the Alliance.

        If thats true that the phone manufacturers lock down the phones, why do they? That confuses me. Is it so they can offer more open features on their more expensive phones? And if thats the case, the networks benefit from that as well because they make more money from their cut of the handset sale.
  • stockjones, on 11/06/2007, -0/+2The service plans are great! But I want to see the actual phone.
  • ISurfTooMuch, on 11/06/2007, -1/+2I'm unsure exactly what this brings to the table that isn't already there. Anyone with AT&T, T-Mobile, or any other GSM carrier can get the unlocked phone of their choice, provided it has the correct frequencies (850 and 1900), pop in their SIM, and away they go. Likewise, phone manufacturers can build a GSM handset with whatever features they like and sell it directly to consumers. Had Apple wanted to, they could have built the iPhone independent of AT&T and sold it unlocked in their stores. Ditto for any other company.

    I also find it interesting that Google is dealing with a CDMA carrier, namely Sprint. With CDMA, the carrier controls what phones it allows on its network. This means Sprint can tinker with the Google OS on their phones, and you can't get around this by buying a generic handset without the Sprint branding/crippling. This won't be such a problem on T-Mobile, since they use GSM, but you'll still have to find an unbranded Google phone, which may or may not be possible. Of course, Google is in business to make money, and they're going to do business with whatever carriers are interested.
    • brufleth, on 11/06/2007, -0/+1The article states they'll sell unlocked phones for people on other carriers. It seems Google is just interested in offering another OS for pretty much any mobile device/phone.
  • 3210, on 11/06/2007, -0/+4Hopefully it will be a pretty good phone. If it is reasonably priced I'll probably buy one on T-Mobile, because my contract with AT&T will be up by then.
  • BigFatPipe, on 11/06/2007, -1/+0It is basically a pro-active play to break down the Garden Wall of ATT & Verizon and to break into the NOKIA Symbian OS increasing strength. To enable the eco-system of the BIGFATPIPE broadband World see - http://wwwbigfatpipe.blogspot.com/ for details, Question - Can the Big TWO resist the growing demand for Open Networks like defined in IMS 4G. It's more than Open OS or Open Handset it is about Open access to WWW
  • adamkmccarthy, on 11/06/2007, -0/+1a good article but the line towards the end of the piece about android succeeding where symbian, palm etc have failed is a little rich.
  • znicket, on 11/06/2007, -0/+1I´m just not seeing the innovation and the hyperbolic statements about "using a mobile device in ways we cannot think of now" strike me as being empty vague promises. There are no concrete examples of how my life would be better when I have this system in my phone.
    Come on... give me something to look forward to.
  • tbrethes, on 11/06/2007, -0/+0Good news, but there is very few details about the platform itself. I see 3 options for Android on the table:

    Option 1) it comes with a native open source JVM. This is the Blackberry approach and the best scenario. It will enable running existing J2ME applications (thousands exist today) and Google will provide more powerfull APIs for their integrationg with their application suite, like GMail, Google Maps and YouTube. GPS APIs would be great too. They will also provide a custom Java based UI toolkit to make applications consistent with the phone UI. IDEs will be Netbeans and Eclipse. The low level access to the underlying Linux OS would be hidden from the developer.

    Option 2) The JVM is not part of Android, but available as a addon. This is Palm approach (IBM provides the JVM for Treos). In this case, Esmertec will likely provide a non open source JVM to run J2ME apps to each phone vendor. This is OK but not very good, as the JVM may or may not be present and they will be no integration with existing app or UI toolkit. Developer will have to code all apps running on Android with C or C++ APIs using Eclipse. the SDK will be very similar to the now defund Palm Foleo or the Nokia Linux Maemo platform.

    Option 3) No JVM, but a powerfull mobile Web Browser ala Safari, based on the Safari WebKit, which is open source, to runn local mobile AJAX apps written in Javascript and DHTML. Google would provide in the browser custom APIs as Javascript libraries to integrate with the platform and custon Javacript UI compomenents. This will be similar to the current iPhone development and also like the Google widget developement. This is ambitious and risky and will not work for mutimedia or game apps. This is not GREAT, but this is OK, specially if they can integrate some version of Google Gears, enabling mobile AJAX apps to run offline. OR ... all 3 options ? Anyway we will know in 1 week time. http://www.unyverse.com
  • MacParrot, on 11/06/2007, -0/+1I didn't get an iPhone (even as a self professed Mac guy) because it offered nothing I wanted from a cell phone (I use a phone to make calls and that's about it) and as an iPod it was subpar with so little storage (thought the screen looks incredible). I also thought it cost entirely too much, so no iPhone (or iPod Touch) for me.
    What will the gphone look like? No one seems to be sure and massive speculation about UI and features will most likely fill the front page of digg for months to come (much as the iPhone did. Thank God that's mostly died down now). I'll make up my mind when products actually start shipping before getting too excited about this.
  • Jamieee, on 11/06/2007, -0/+1What about the UK? :|
  • grinndaddy, on 11/06/2007, -2/+1More Android vs iPhone stuff: http://www.grinn.net/blog/dev/2007/11/googles-andr ...
  • ValleyWonka, on 11/06/2007, -1/+1 Android is an OS, not a phone.... Carriers are up for it because they can pass on low priced phones and/or lower subscription rates to customers (no royalty to OS) .. Add to this a host of new initiatives like Location Based Service (you'll get ads from the local pizzeria when you're passing through it).... It will be good for people who can't afford the expensive business phones, but I doubt business users will like seeing ads on their phone... A good initiative though! Will have to see how far the members cooperate because they are serious competitors outside this alliance!
  • leberama, on 11/06/2007, -0/+1This is a good thing! I like it.
  • jmahorney, on 11/13/2007, -0/+2OMG! I cant believe sprint is finally getting something good. Im blown away! I'm with you Google. Up yours Apple.
  • mikehill33, on 11/13/2007, -0/+2No fan boi tax with open source! iTards!
  • mindframe, on 11/07/2007, -0/+1ummm if i buy a mobile phone for say $300, service for $60/month- WHY THE ***** SHOULD I LOOK AT ADS???? ***** you google. Your open platform is for suckers and tv addicts that are addicted to commercials and "the google crowd", those idiots are just as dumb as mac fags. Leave it to google to exploit Linux on a mobile phone for ad use. You want an open platform, KEEP ADS THE ***** OUT. Assholes.
    • artemster, on 11/07/2007, -0/+1You assume ads are the motivation. You have no proof to back this statement. Capitalization notwithstanding.
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