The rumor had it that the Android phone could face delays, http://www.cellular-news.com/story/31963.php.
But wait! Google immediately re-confirmed that the Android phone will be on schedule for release by the end of 2008. With T-Mobile US preparing for the launch of its first Android phone, everything seems to be on track. Then why was the rumor in the first place.
Not sure! It can be just a small marketing PR skirmish. It may be a good idea to remind people of Android amid the iPhone hype. I wrote two blogs on Android late last year and earlier this year. All indications pointed to the year end of 2008 as the earliest time frame for Android phones to join the market. In a way and in my opinion, Google has the easier part of creating an Android phone. Linux is part of Google's culture and it is not the first time for the Android team to put Java on top of an operating system. The manufacturers are taking the hard part in providing the Board Support Package (BSP) which links Android software to the underlying hardware. After all, cell phone hardware is far from being standardized as that in the PC industry.
Base on the track records of HTC and Samsung, it is a tight schedule for anything to show up for this Christmas. Nevertheless this rumor validated the marketing success of Android as press and consumers believed the "2nd half of 2008" to be July not December.
