Verizon has chosen the LiMo Foundation instead of Google Android which is all well and good but they had to go out of their way to take a cheap shot at Google.
“We chose LiMo because it’s a collaborative effort. It’s not just one company runs the place. We like that. We like a collegial and collaborative effort, where there is no barrier to entry on the part of developers and, at the end of the day, there is no one entity that can say ‘OK, here’s how we were playing now. The rules are changed.”
It’s hard to make the argument that Google isn’t a company trying to pioneer the “open airwaves” movement and to peg them as some sort of monopolistic empire is a little rich. Thems is fightin words.
Verizon is going to introduce a line of handsets based on the LiMo Foundation’s mobile Linux OS. The LiMo foundation is best known for promoting Any Apps, Any Device, an open access initiative. Expect these devices in the next week because word is that CTO Tony Melone has promised the devices mid-May.
Although Android is also Linux-based, the LiMo Foundation has beat Google to the punch by unveiling its first devices at the Mobile World Congress 2008 event in Barcelona in February. LiMo’s Linux based devices include Motorola’s Moto U9, Moto Z6w, Motorokr Z6 and Razr2 V8, NEC’s FOMA N905i and FOMA N705i, Panasonic’s FOMA P905iTV and FOMA N7051, and Samsung’s SGH-i800.
Google’s Android OS has yet to make a full blown appearance on the market and yet we’re getting a glimpse at the various software that will be released. Google has released a list of 50 of what it considers to be the top mobile applications using its OS. The winners were discovered during Google’s Android Developer Challenge which had 1,800 submissions. The winners will eventually be narrowed down to the top 20 and 10 of them will receive $100,000 prizes while the very top will earn $275,000 in prizes.
An interesting note here is that 60% of the winners and applicants were from outside the United States.
Clearwire, the wireless highspeed provider that has recently been given a huge amount of money from Google, has posted a Q1 loss of $176.4 million. On the other hand, Clearwire added 48,000 net new subscribers during the quarter. The carrier ended the quarter with about 443,000 total subscribers. If this trend continues, Clearwire may be a solid base from which Google can start its plans for world domination.
Google is making really aggressive moves to take over the mobile space. In recent news, Google has partnered with Sprint to completely revamp Sprint’s content deck to be Googleable (yes, that should be a verb). Sprint will also be offering a home screen search on it’s Windows Mobile devices. Look forward to devices being launched with Google Maps and YouTube apps.
This is exciting news considering searching for content through the carrier’s deck has always been a pain. Especially with respect to games, content searching has always just been about looking at the top downloads and getting a title you recognize. Google will hopefully be changing all of this.
After Google’s partnership with Clearwire back in January when it bought a $500 million stake in the company, Google and other major investors have made a huge move to gain Android support. Google, along with Intel, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, is investing $3.2 billion for the union of Sprint Nextel’s and Clearwire’s wireless broadband businesses into a new wireless communications company. Continue reading ‘Google dishes out cash for Android support’
Venture Beat recently did a review for a karaoke application for the iPhone called Tune Wiki. The girl reviewing it is really cute but I’m not sure what her point was about her deaf parents. Something about how her parents don’t know what she’s listening to and the Tune Wiki lyrics as well as the phone’s vibration feature helps them. The application was demo’ed on Google’s Android and it looks like a lot of fun. All you would have to do is make sure to plug your phone into a TV so the lyrics can be read by all and have the sound playing out of a decent system. Karaoke is best shared with friends!
Neville Ray, senior vice president of engineering at T-Mobile USA, told us today that the company plans to put out “a new device” running Android in the fourth quarter of this year. We’re hoping that T-Mobile is ready to lead the charge with Android and more carriers will follow.
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