Google has revealed that there will be about 18 to 20 cellphones launched by the end of this year which will have Android as their operating systems. About 8 to 9 different manufacturers are involved in the production of the 18 models and each manufacturer would release the phone as their own product.
However, Google has kept many options open as to how the Android OS would be used, and how apps can be downloaded on to it or not downloaded. Carriers will also be slower to launch the phones in the US than in Europe as they quote severe domestic competition to be a reason.
Android based phones would compete against iPhone’s OS, Windows, Linux based OS, Palm OS, Symbian and others. There would be three options for device manufacturers and the first one is that there would be an obligation free version. Here, the manufacturer can just download the free version of Android but cannot pre-load services like Gmail and others.
The Small Strings option would let the device manufacturers to sign agreements with Google for certain Google apps. The no-censorship version would come with a Google logo and there would be no restriction whatsoever. Google certainly is trying to compete with other biggies out there, and if the Android really becomes successful as an OS, then Google will begin to monopolize cellphone space as well, which is certainly not healthy.
Via: NYTimes
