The mobile OS space hasn't ever been hotter ! Reminds me of the eternal and very public Boeing and Airbus battle...this time though it seem to be between the Android and Symbian with both vying for the "Open(ness)" crown

Android up, down, then up again (maybe)

26/03/2009 - by TelecomTV One

What a difference a month makes. Way back in February Android, the Google-inspired open smartphone platform, was apparently on a downer and even, it was whispered, somewhat of a spend force. But now, reports of its death seem highly exaggerated, says Ian Scales.

When none of the mooted Android handsets rumoured for launch actually showed up at MWC in Barcelona, things looked bad for the platform.

True, there was the announcement by Vodafone that it was going to carry the next HTC Android, but somehow that wasn't enough. Despondency was palpable in the Android camp.

However, over the last couple of weeks the news-flow seems to show Android still in rude health. Applications continue to arrive on the Android Market, such as the recent announcement of the mobilemulti-IM app Palringo (it enables you to ping most of the other IM platforms from a single app).

More news of vendor support too. Acer announced that it will launch a device in September - the A1 will be one of four Android-based offerings from the world's third-largest PC vendor.

Samsung has announced that its first Android phone will be be released no earlier than the third quarter of 2009 and it expects to be the first of the five largest suppliers of mobile phones to get to market with Android.

Most recently, Orange France is reported to planning a veritable Android assault with plans to add Android devices from Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung.


According to unconfirmed reports, Orange is enthusiastic about Android unit pricing (apparently cheaper than equivalent smartphones) and is also happy to take the revenue share assigned to carriers from the Android Market.

Maybe an open smartphone platform is a little (just a little, mind you) like a terrorist organisation, in that it only has to get through once or twice with iconic or highly popular handsets to have a market-dominating effect, whereas a closed OS like iPhone, requires its producer to be successful every time.

Whatever the reason, researchers Informa expect Android to outstrip the iPhone by 2012, based mostly on the calculation that all other things being fairly equal, an open platform with a plethora of producers and outlets is likely to better in market share terms than a single, proprietary system.

Informa also thinks Symbian will do better once it's new openness results in new software and it expects it to maintain its OS leadership in the medium term.