Samsung's Android phone arriving to the party earlier than expected, bringing friends
By Tim Stevens 
posted Apr 3rd 2009 7:31AM
posted Apr 3rd 2009 7:31AM
Remember the blurry blob of pixels reputed to be Samsung's entrance to the Android handset market? It was initially expected to come into focus sometime after July, but word from Dr. Won-Pyo Hong, a Samsung VP, is that the phone will see international release a month earlier, in June. He has also confirmed that two other Google-powered handsets are in development by the company, both set for US release sometime in the second half of the year. The phones are said to be "totally different" from each other and will be so at odds they'll have to go to separate networks or risk creating a hilarious feud of the type we haven't seen since TV's Perfect Strangers. Both are said to offer considerable enhancements and tweaks to Android that should distance them HTC's offerings, but will the two ever stand a chance of getting along? Don't be ridiculous!
Sammy and Android together at last - w00t!
Die, blurry Android clock of Doom!
It seems very strange that there are still such long delays in rolling out Android compatible phones to market since the launch of the G1 in October 2008. 6 months later we still only have one Android capable phone and no firm dates for additional handsets. It seems Android has run out of steam before it's got started.
From the article:
"Samsung is known for its ability to hustle important products to market. So why hasn't the company released an Android phone already? Hong said Samsung was waiting, in part, for a go-ahead from its operator partners. "Some operators were concerned about the vision Google has [and] that affected [timing]," Hong said."
I think people underestimate how difficult it is to get a new mobile OS on the market. A lot of the carriers probably wanted to wait and see how well the G1 did before committing to yet another platform. Remember that it took the iPhone a full year to go from its initial one carrier in one country to being shipped worldwide on multiple carriers. Handset manufactures also need time to familiarize themselves with the software and feel comfortable in releasing a product running it.
Personally, I'm not worried. No one has backed out yet, and the number of phones set to be released in 2009 seems to be increasing all the time.
Hopefully att will get some android phones before the year is over
I'm very, very keen on Android, so I certainly hope it hasn't "run out of steam"
Coming from a Samsung D600 that turns off every time someone tries to call me though, I'd even stoop so low as to be very, very keen on an iPhone at the moment too, so I don't know what that says about Android.
i see what you did there, tim. i almost spit out my cereal. sadly most of the readers may be too young to catch it.
' Now we are so happy, we do the Dance of Joy!"
Please Verizon, get an Android phone.
amen to that!
Samsung keeps releasing new phones every second but they've never nailed it, I doubt if this one would be any different. Nokia please make my life better, give me the N97 thats all i need.
You want to pay one grand for a phone, be my guest.
I second the guy above me.
its not that it is a one grand phone, most of the stuff in the n97 aren't the AMAZING... where are my 1k diamonds?
This had better have a VGA resolution (or better) screen.
I'm getting sick of HTC et al. releasing amazing hardware with Windows Mobile, and older, slower phones with half the screen res for Android.
Coosin Larrry, Coosin Larry! Now we are so happy, we must do the happy dance!
Dah Dah Dah Dah
da da... da da....
Hey...Hey
Hey...Hey
Heeeeeyyyy Hey!
I think it was the "dance of joy."
Hopefully they write a TouchWiz home screen for it. I was playing with a TouchWiz phone the other day and it's a pretty cool interface.
That phone looks sweet. I love the pixelated style of it. So innovative. I just can't see people getting used to this thing though.
Is there ANY chance we'll see one of these on Sprint this soon (June)?
Just read the source and they said sprint is likely. I have an upgrade this summer and I'm becoming less excited for the Pre as time goes by, I would seriously consider an Android phone, especially by Samsung, who is my favorite cellphone maker.
I hope it has a Sprint TV client that doesn't suck, though. Sprint TV on Instinct is smoothe and quick, Sprint TV on Blackberry or WinMo take forever to even load the guide.
I sure hope that blurry phone above isn't the one coming to Sprint in June, I'd rather wait until December for something better!
They get this on ATT and get native Exchange support and I'm in. But given Google's push to make the world run on all things Google, I suspect it will not have the latter. The G1 is sort of cool, but it is very much a V1 device and really unsuitable for serious business use..This has more potential.
Although overall, I am happy enough with my creaky old Blackjack 2 to wait and see what happens with this and the Palm Pre before I decide to jump.
i'm stuck to ATT until sept and in dire need of a new phone, hoping this one comes to ATT before sept...otherwise, I'm going to T-Mobile for a G2.