Samsung looks like being the next company to support Google’s bid to enter the mobile phone market.
It seems likely that Samsung will introduce next year a mobile phone which runs Google’s Android open source operating system.
This is further evidence that Google’s mobile phone bid is starting to build a serious head of steam in the industry.
Earlier this week, The Android phone operating system gained important support in the form of ARM, Ericsson, Toshiba and Vodafone which all joined the Open Handset Alliance supporting Android.
Like a number of mobile phone firms Samsung was known to be looking closely at an Android handset. It has been apparent for sometime that Samsung is adopting a multi-standard approach to the next generation of mobile handset. It lining up handsets based on a Linux software platform, such as Android, and the rival Microsoft Windows Mobile platform.
Now Samsung has brought-forward the development of a Google phone and is aiming for a release date of the second quarter of the next year in the US market.
The one and only handset supporting Google’s operating system, the G1 from HTC of Taiwan, was launched earleir this year. Motorola is also developing a Google phone.
There is big excitement in the industry with emergence of Android and other open source software as the basis of new mobile phone developments. All the major software companies are lining up behind a set of different so-called “standard” approaches to what will be the first open source mobile phone platform.
Microsoft, Symbian – now owned by Nokia – and Google are in the contest, and Intel has also made its intentions clear when it acquired a small but significant London-based Linux open source software development company called OpenedHand.
See also: The Electronics Weekly guide to the iPhone 3G, a roundup of news and content on Apple's latest mobile phone.
See also: Electronics Weekly's Focus on Samsung Electronics, a roundup of content on three main areas of the technology giant's development: memory chips, LCD displays and mobile phone technology.