Over the past few days, we’ve gotten multiple confirmations from reliable sources that the first phone built on Google’s Android platform will launch in the next several weeks. It will be an HTC phone, likely the HTC Dream, and will be launched internationally on the T-Mobile network. A window of between Oct 15 and Nov 30 is most likely, according to these sources.
Around mid-July we received some information that T-Mobile had started its preparations for the Android launch. A few weeks later, there were signs from the Android team that development was wrapping up and that the final software development kit (SDK) for the device was nearing completion. A few days later we began hearing that not only was the first Android phone already in existence, it was in the midst of its “first series” phase. This means it is being distributed now among selected employees/managers at HTC, T-Mobile and informed third parties. Various organizational activities, including marketing and training of employees have already started as well.
In the past weeks, amidst reports indicating Android phones may be delayed and frustrations amongst Open Handset Alliance Members, we continually heard from both Google and HTC that the first Android phones would launch before the end of the year. Now we have solid first-hand information that the launch is just weeks away.
Let’s look at some of the problems which Google Android/the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) is supposed to have had in the last months:
* Developers supposedly have been staying away from Android and focusing on the systems already out there: BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Mobile and the iPhone;
* Open Handset Alliance Member Sprint was arguing that Google Android is not addressing “industry fundamentals more pragmatically”;
* Google was rumored to build its own “Gphone”;
* Most recently HTC is supposed to be “having structural problems to incorporate Google’s demanded feature set” and not being able to make it this year.
So what do we know ?
We quickly learned to distrust most of the speculation. We repeatedly asked Google to confirm launch dates. Answers included “phones based on the Android platform will be available in Q4 of this year” and “we remain on schedule to deliver the first Android-based handset this year.” We also learned that Google was keeping the latest version of the Android SDK from the majority of Android-focused developers as Zdnet reported.
Around mid-July, we had some information that T-Mobile started its preparations for the Android launch. At the beginning of August, there where signs from inside the Android team that they reached an important point in development. They released the final SDK for the Android Developer Challenge participants — suggesting the release to handset manufactures was near. Some days later we heard a confirmation from another, reliable source that T-Mobile is preparing the launch and this person was willing to share some actual information. After we learned this, we took it to others, and they were willing to talk. This is what we consider as confirmed information:
The first “Android phone” exists. It’s a HTC phone
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