Linux Solutions

A report by ABI Research claims that Android’s success has “little to do with user acceptance”, adding more pressure on Google’s open source OS for the release of T-Mobiles G1 phone.

Kevin Burden, ABI’s director, wrote that Android can help sell a lot of smartphones only if carriers and manufacturers “recognise the value to their own business models of using standard platforms.”

At present HTC is the only original equipment manufacturer with a commitment to Android, with T-Mobile acting as the lone carrier.

“Let’s take away all the marketing hype and take a deep breath and let it all out,” Ramon Llamas, IDC senior research analyst said. “It’s the next iPhone, the next BlackBerry - it’s one phone on one carrier right now, does that sound familiar to you? It may carry the brand and everything, but for most people in the universe, they haven’t even touched this darn thing yet.”

“It’s way too early to tell,” said independent telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan, who has had an opportunity to check out the G1. “It’s cool, it’s great, it’s definitely good software and definitely worth looking at, but it’s not that different from the iPhone. They both basically do the same thing.”

T-Mobile recently announced that it would triple its original order for G1 handsets, and early estimates have put T-Mobile selling around 1.5 million phones in the first few weeks.

However, with the world in financial breakdown, people may be less likely to part with their hard earned cash, and the same could be said for original equipment manufacturers – even though the advantage of open source maintenance and developer improvements could help lower costs in the long run.

“It takes a lot of cost in supporting multi-platforms,” Llamas said. “That’s going to be on a lot of people’s radars. T-Mobile would like to make money off of this, but they’re staring at this ‘gift horse’ and saying how much cost can we weather and how much do customers want this? Knowing that the holiday season is coming but the economy is down, do we stay at this price or do we move it?”

But in a difficult market, where iPhone reigns supreme, Blackberry shuffling awkwardly at the back, and Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 on the horizon, Google could find it a hard sell.

“Google’s got a name, but it’s just a name,” Kagan said. “Google is great at what they do online and with search, but all these other businesses they get into, they’re just not as successful as search. The smartphone category is the fastest-growing category in cell phones right now, that’s why everybody is focused like a laser beam on this right now, why everybody wants in and why everybody would love to be the favourite.”