Google: 18 Android phones coming this year, possibly more

18 Android phones, possibly 20 on the market this year according to Andy Rubin, speaking at Google I/O. Even higher if you count all the rogue, Google App-free Android deployments that Google's not aware of. Seeing as how we're already nearly half-way through the year with just a pair of Android handsets on the market (the T-Mobile G1, HTC Magic) and just another -- the Samsung i7500 Galaxy -- officially in the chute, we're going to see a flood of product before year's end. In fact, Rubin claims the releases will come from 8 or 9 manufacturers with faster adoption seen in Europe as US carriers try to "create highly distinctive versions of the Android phone to give themselves an edge." Sure, edge, if that's what you want to call the US cartel of hoops and handcuffs then go right ahead. Interestingly, Rubin also further clarified the three flavors of Android which break down as follows:

• Google-free: Free to download version of Android without Google applications like Gmail or Google Calendar. Access to Android applications is at the whimsical fancy of the manufacturer.
  
• Strings attached: Same as above but manufacturers sign a distribution agreement with Google and pre-install the Google applications. Of Rubin's possible 20 phones, 12 to 14 fall into this category
  
• The Google Experience: Phones featuring the Google logo with all Google apps installed and includes unrestricted access (neither the carrier nor handset maker can block applications they find objectionable) to the Android market. 5 or 6 of the 20, Android phones mentioned by Rubin will deliver the full Google Experience as god and Sergey designed it.
  

Go ahead, blow it out Google, we're ready for it.

[avis @ May 28th 2009 5:54AM]

AND- roid

[Tonicboy @ May 28th 2009 5:56AM]

I hope this is true, but it seems a little hard to believe that so many manufacturers are planning to launch within six months and haven't publicized their products to hell and back yet. Why are they hiding?

[TareX @ May 28th 2009 6:39AM]

I too greatly suspect we'll be seeing even close to 18 phones this year. Sorry... it sounds like a statement to raise Google's stock pirce.

[Premature ejaculation man @ May 28th 2009 7:16AM]

Financial year?

[Andir3.0 @ May 28th 2009 8:03AM]

I'm kind of hoping Verizon is on that list. I know they are hated by some, but I haven't had an issues with the service... and I get cheaper service.

[jpxdude @ May 28th 2009 5:56AM]

I'd love the ability to stick Android on my HTC TyTN. I thought this kind of facility was touted from the get-go. Anyone know if this is still the plan eventually with the Android OS?

[gerrrg @ May 28th 2009 6:13AM]

Good lord...that is just freaking amazing. Palm may yet die.

[Temo @ May 28th 2009 6:27AM]

I hate you Andy Rubin. I was just about to buy the N97 when you tell me this.

YOU BETTER BE RIGHT... and by this year you better mean this summer.

[superhobo @ May 28th 2009 6:28AM]

Finally.

[TareX @ May 28th 2009 6:32AM]

What are the odds of ONE of those 20 phones having:

- The Tegra chip (with OpenGL ES 2.0 UI)
- A physical qwerty
- A WVGA screen
- The Google Experience (no prob I can xda it)

...?

[TareX @ May 28th 2009 6:35AM]

I forgot to add:

- AND NOT LOOK REPULSIVE.

,,, because the current Android phones aren't really good looking.

[barracuda @ May 28th 2009 6:52AM]

don't tell me.. the iphone is the best looking phone...
?

[TareX @ May 28th 2009 6:55AM]

Actually if there's anything I'd give the iPhone, it would be its looks.

But I'd like it to look more than that "theoretical" device Nvidia is using in the Tegra demo:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/mobile_games_demos.html

... with a qwerty, of course. After seeing that GP2X emulator on the G1, there's no way I'm buying a touchscreen-only Android.

[chefgon_ign @ May 28th 2009 8:09AM]

Do you work for Nvidia? You're in every single phone article talking about how everything is worthless unless it has Tegra. Just cool it on the Tegra thing until a product actually exists.

[TareX @ May 28th 2009 8:19AM]

@ chefgon_ign

Are you allergic to those kinds of posts? For the record, I haven't brought up Tegra for the past dozen posts or something. However, it IS warranted in this article, as at least TWO of those 20 devices will have Tegra inside (IAC S2 in Q3 09, and Yulong N8 in Q4 09).

Moreover, Nvidia is announcing Tegra phones next week at Computex....

[skyblaze @ May 28th 2009 11:42AM]

i don't mind it. im just about as excited for tegra as TareX is. those kinda balls to the wall specs on an android phone is enough to make me get rid of every other electronic device i got... and more than enough to make the evangelical apple-saps wake up and smell the imperial roses. first android tegra with qwerty and all that jazz that comes out will have my money faster than you can flamethrow an iphone. throw your dice on that one.

[TareX @ May 28th 2009 11:45AM]

Keep in mind though that only Android Éclair (2.5) will benefit from Tegra's OpenGL ES 2.0 UI and other perks.... it was mentioned yesterday:

"During the Q&A Dan revealed that OpenGL 2.0 support was coming in the Eclair version (currently at HEAD in source control). The 2d framework will be running in a 3d context. He also said this would allow the support of video as a texture."

Source: http://www.planetandroid.com
by Ed Burnette at May 28, 2009 03:48 AM

[JS @ May 28th 2009 11:55AM]

The odds of WVGA are zero. They don't support it. It's also a pain to modify the source code to support it and you need many changes to sizes and layout stuff. No manufacturer is going to go out of their way to have WVGA screens if the main Android source code doesn't support it because of the support issues involved.

[TareX @ May 28th 2009 11:57AM]

@ JS

what if I tell you it's already been done....? Can't say more than that.... but it's coming.

[skyblaze @ May 28th 2009 12:17PM]

and not only that but since opengl es 2.0 is definitely on its way... how the hell do you expect to throw premium 3d graphics on a measly half vga screen?! i say at the VERY least wvga is a GIVEN. and it won't end there either. with the way things are going i wouldnt be surprised to see android go 720p by the end of 2010 or early 2011

[Sohip @ May 29th 2009 1:57PM]

Seriously, I was going to get the G1 on the first day it got released, but after I read Tarex posts and saw the Tegra demos on youtube, I become willing to wait till Christmas of 2009.

[glenskey @ May 28th 2009 6:34AM]

WOOOO!! android!!!

[L.Rawlins @ May 28th 2009 6:57AM]

What's to stop Google releasing Android for you to flash onto any unlocked hardware you like? Why must it come strapped to a phone?

If your device is out of warranty, unlocked, and the manufacturers of the handset themselves have lost interest in its development, it could wind up being the most lucrative back door into widespread market saturation we've ever seen.

I've a few out-of-favour handsets myself lying around that could see all kinds of extended life and functionality with a bit of Android assimilation. It's asking an awful lot of compatibility, and of Google's programmers, but it would be a completely awesome move on their part.

[L.Rawlins @ May 28th 2009 7:01AM]

The ability to change the operating system on ours phones is something I've been thinking about for a while now. Incase you hadn't noticed. :-)

[gcc @ May 28th 2009 7:07AM]

You know, its open source- you can try porting it yourself.

Its not going to be easy, but you're right- it's probably a money spinner.

[L.Rawlins @ May 28th 2009 8:06AM]

I'm no programmer, I'm sorry to say; and half the appeal of the concept I just proposed is how easy Google could foreseeably make it for the lamen user to plug in a USB cable, hit 'Assimilate' and rock their mobiles world via a database of builds. The boon for Google would be to make such an approach 'one button easy', since then more people would be inclined to do it.

A man can dream. :-)

[chefgon_ign @ May 28th 2009 8:14AM]

Technically that's already possible, but the problem lies with the hardware itself, not with Android.

Android is capable of being loaded up pretty much anything you can cram the Linux kernel onto, but most phones have locked out firmware that prevent installing a different OS without hacking. Add to that the fact that phones don't generally have widely available open-source drivers for their hardware and you've got yourself a driver nightmare. You may be able to throw Android onto your old RAZR, but none of the cellular radios or even the keypad are going to work right until you write up some custom drivers to tell Android what to do with them.

That's just the reality of cell phone hardware, there's absolutely nothing that Google can do about it from the software side. They've already made it as easy as possible for the talented hackers out there to force Android onto old handsets, but unfortunately there's still hundreds of hours of work to be done for each particular handset you want to install it on.

[westwood15 @ Jun 25th 2009 1:13AM]

they probably won't only because of the work put into it on the other hand it would mean I could put android on my old phones the problem with this is just like that average consumer doesn't no how to install windows on a PC they wouldn't no how to install android on there phone and they are the demographic who brings in the money.

[CJ @ May 28th 2009 7:14AM]

I just got my G1 (here it's the HTC Dream), and I'm fucking LOVING it.

[kirankonathala @ May 28th 2009 9:56AM]

Unless I get ATT's 3G experience on Android phones it is a waste of time and money for me, and oh, the battery!

[Famous by Marital-Association @ May 28th 2009 2:33PM]

... and oh the battery? I use mine all day everyday and never run into any problems. The fact that I can charge with mini-USB also has the added benefit that I can always find a compatable charger, or a plug into a powered USB port and use a mini-USB cable.

Oh yeah- and I can swap batteries if I'm cycling, skiing or hiking while geo-caching on GPS all day and into the night.

[hreyy @ May 28th 2009 7:21AM]

Why should we wait for it to come out when we already have it? I've been running winmo 6.5 and android for a while now and everything works fine...

http://www.androidonhtc.com/

[craig @ May 28th 2009 9:12AM]

I have plenty of goodwill towards Android but it WOULD be nice if they could fix a few blantant bugs/features

1. Having to reboot to get a signal, seems to drop off the network and stay off until a reboot
2. Media PLayer volume does not get set to default in the media player volume settings
3. Loads of App not responding windows
4. What no graphic equaliser or visualiser?

[trevor @ May 28th 2009 11:47AM]

well as far as your first problem goes go into to airplane mode and out again (its under wireless controls but if you got cupcake all you gotta do is hold the power button) none of the other stuff seem to bother me that much though....

[Aaron @ May 28th 2009 7:57AM]

I'll wait for Android Home Premium edition, thanks.

[ForbesMyester @ May 28th 2009 8:09AM]

So any "Google Experience" phone can have Skype forinstance installed on it, Yes the carrier may block the ports, but you can install anything, it's essentially "your phone", as apposed to what normally happens with phone contracts.

Is the G1 a "Google Experience" phone, it has the logo's, but you can't install what you want on it. Are they saying it could not be a "Google Experience" phone from now on...

Am I alone in wondering what's going on?

[chefgon_ign @ May 28th 2009 8:19AM]

You're right, the G1 does not meet the new "with Google" requirements because T-Mobile has blocked tethering apps from the Android Market. I assume these rules were put in place well after the G1's branding was agreed upon.

But you're wrong that you can't install whatever you want on it. There is absolutely no restriction to what you can install on a T-Mobile G1, and neither T-Mobile or Google has ever shown any intent to stop you from freely installing whatever you want, there are just certain programs that T-Mobile doesn't want distributed on the market. You can still get them from somewhere else and install them without any hacking or jailbreaking required.

[chefgon_ign @ May 28th 2009 8:20AM]

Hopefully some of them have hardware keyboards. After playing around with Cupcake for a week or so, I'm firmly convinced that I will never be satisfied with a touchscreen-only phone.

[jeremy @ May 28th 2009 8:32AM]

at&t is already looking for a way to screw up android///

[TareX @ May 28th 2009 8:33AM]

ANDROID ECLAIR WILL HAVE OPENGL ES 2.0 SUPPORT, 3D UI.

"During the Q&A Dan revealed that OpenGL 2.0 support was coming in the Eclair version (currently at HEAD in source control). The 2d framework will be running in a 3d context. He also said this would allow the support of video as a texture."

by Ed Burnette at May 28, 2009 03:48 AM

source: http://www.planetandroid.com/

.... so that's the dealbreaker for me.

[superjay @ May 28th 2009 8:42AM]

I'm sooo waiting for a N97 with better hardware specs that runs Android. Please..... I'm still about to buy the N97 as a temporary phone or maybe even the new iPhone but I really really want this Android qwerty beast with a decent cam.

[Masterandew @ May 28th 2009 9:16AM]

Apple needs be careful that they dont get lost behind the Android like they did with Windows. Windows was open and anyone could install it on any computer while Apple of course locked theirs down. Apple needs open the iPhone to more carriers before the Android gains more market share from people that dont want to sign up with AT&T. Yes, Im a fan boy.

[Jason @ May 28th 2009 11:07AM]

18 Android phones..... NONE on Verizon Wireless.

[bondydaa @ May 28th 2009 1:30PM]

Exactly what I was thinking, well they might get a few of the Google-free phones but they'll lock out anything cool you can do and force you to use VZ Navigator instead of Google Maps. For me I'm willing to wait to see what Verizon is going to do with the Pre, my contract isn't up for another 5 or 6 months anyways.

[tim @ May 28th 2009 11:56AM]

Could we have a sticker program to help consumers distinguish between the different flavors of Android devices? Thanks.

[iKurt 5D @ May 28th 2009 1:08PM]

Technically, Apple has one model out in the market right now with 3 different configurations. If that doesn't explain how successful Apple's influence in the smartphone market and how well it's doing, this news article explains it all.

[Tom @ May 28th 2009 10:21PM]

ugh, a month ago it was simple, blackberry (vzw), Iphone (ATT), or G1 (tMo). I had decided to spring for g1, even though i already belong to a family plan on vzw. THEN i find pre is coming to verizon, THEN threre are 20 new android phones. HOW WILL I EVER DECIDE???

[JohnRearden @ Jul 4th 2009 4:23AM]

@Tom: I know the feeling. I'm just listing all the phone candidates on my wiki (http://wiki.dandascalescu.com/reviews/gadgets/pda_phones), along with the features I care about. So far the Samsung Galaxy seems the winner, as it's the only Android phone with a digital compass and camera flash.