Emailing "Schedule Slips for Google's Android Platform"
G comes before I, but today's Wall Street Journal reports that the much-awaited "gPhone" won't come in time to challenge
Apple's iPhone 3G. Handsets using Google's open-source Android mobile software platform,
originally promised for the second half of this year, won't show up until the
fourth quarter -- and while that's the target date for T-Mobile USA's Android
phone, others from Sprint Nextel and China Mobile are unlikely to ship until
2009.
Mobile
software developers are said to be grappling with Android's still-a-work-in-progress
status while trying to develop applications and services other than the
built-in features Google will offer. Meanwhile, the Journal's Jessica E.
Vascellaro and Amol Sharma report, Samsung and other smartphone makers are
running late in integrating and testing Android on their hardware. One source
at Sprint hints that the carrier may scrap plans to offer a 3G gPhone in favor
of one configured for its faster, future 4G network.
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