AT&T finally goes Android, confirms Dell, HTC and Motorola on board
By Nilay Patel 
posted January 6th 2010 1:08PM
posted January 6th 2010 1:08PM
AT&T Launches Major Initiative to Bring 'Apps to All'
Company Also Plans to Launch Five Android-Based Devices in First Half of 2010
Las Vegas, Nevada, January 6, 2010
newsrelease
AT&T today announced plans to launch five new devices from Dell, HTC and Motorola based on the Android platform. The company also announced a major initiative to expand the universe of mobile applications beyond smartphones to more mobile phones – and spur future app development for emerging consumer electronics devices, its U-verse TV platform, and enterprise and small business workplaces.
At the 4th annual AT&T Developer Summit in Las Vegas, executives outlined details including:
* New devices that will give customers the most robust choices of major operating systems (OS), including Android™, in the U.S.
* A goal to offer all major smartphone OS app stores
* An agreement with Qualcomm to standardize apps development for mid-range Quick Messaging Devices using BREW Mobile Platform. These devices are used by millions of customers who historically have not had the same convenient access as smartphone customers to the market's hottest apps
* A new AT&T SDK (software developer kit) to help developers immediately begin to develop apps for these devices
* A significantly enhanced developer program and new relationships with global carriers that are intended to make it easier for developers to distribute apps in markets outside the U.S.
* Future initiatives to enable developers to create more apps for AT&T's U-verse TV, emerging consumer electronics devices, and businesses
* A new AT&T Virtual Innovation Lab and two new Innovation Centers, which will help developers and spur apps development
"Applications help consumers realize the full value and benefits of mobile broadband networks, services and devices," said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "Today some AT&T customers can take advantage of more than 100,000 apps – but only if they have the right handset. Our goal is to bring more apps to millions more of our customers who want convenient access to the market's hottest apps. At the same time, in the future, we plan to go well beyond mobile devices to spur apps development."
In addition to ultimately giving more customers more choices of applications, the long-term strategic initiatives announced today will make it easier for developers to cost effectively create applications and reach broader audiences, and help AT&T drive data revenues.
Extend Smartphone Leadership
AT&T will further its leadership in smartphones with the planned launch of five new devices from Dell, HTC and Motorola based on the Android platform. Those devices, which are scheduled to be available during the first half of 2010, include:
* A Motorola smartphone, powered by MOTOBLUR, with a unique form factor and an AT&T exclusive
* Dell's first smartphone, based on the Android platform and an AT&T exclusive
* A HTC smartphone, based on the Android platform, and an AT&T exclusive
AT&T customers with these devices will benefit not only from the nation's fastest 3G network but also the ability to simultaneously talk on the phone while surfing the Web or reading email. Customers can sign up for email notifications as more details are available at www.att.com/android.
In addition, AT&T announced its goal to lead the industry in application choices for smartphone customers by offering all major app stores. It will preload the corresponding store for each device -- giving customers convenient access to thousands of apps optimized for their smartphone. Today, AT&T added to existing agreements with Nokia for Ovi store and Microsoft for Windows Marketplace by announcing an agreement for Android Market. It expects to announce more app store agreements in the near future and will offer carrier billing as an easy and convenient payment option for as many stores as possible.
'Apps for All' by Standardizing Apps Development with Brew Mobile Platform
De la Vega also announced a significant new agreement with Qualcomm to standardize apps development by adopting BREW Mobile Platform. With this agreement, AT&T intends to make BREW Mobile Platform its primary operating system platform for Quick Messaging Devices, one of the company's fastest growing categories of devices.
AT&T customers with these devices historically haven't had the same convenient access as AT&T smartphone customers to thousands of compelling, new applications. Since AT&T launched its pioneering line-up of Quick Messaging Devices in fall 2008, about 30 percent of the company's postpaid customers who are new or upgrading have purchased this type of device. AT&T is committed to spurring innovation and apps development for the millions of customers in this category.
Quick Messaging Devices are integrated devices that are value priced and texting centric; they have full QWERTY keyboards, either physical or virtual, and, since this past fall, full Web browsing capabilities. Customers with these devices are more likely to demand apps, subscribe to messaging and data plans, and are a large potential market for application developers, according to AT&T research.
AT&T Chief Marketing Officer David Christopher announced plans to begin rolling out Quick Messaging Devices with BREW Mobile Platform in the second half of the year, so that by year end 2011, about 90 percent of AT&T's devices in this segment are planned to be based on BREW Mobile Platform. AT&T announced that Samsung will be its first device maker to launch a Quick Messaging Device featuring BREW Mobile Platform. HTC, LG and Pantech also are building devices featuring BREW Mobile Platform for planned availability in late 2010 or early 2011.
"Today, developers must essentially rebuild apps for different handsets and operating systems, increasing their costs, slowing the pace of innovation and stalling the delivery of mobile apps to customers," Christopher said. "We want to tear down the barriers and make it much easier for developers to reach our customers – and for our customers to access apps. Moving to one platform for this fast growing segment of devices will help developers reach millions more customers who want easy access to the hottest mobile apps."
To help developers jumpstart apps development for AT&T's BREW Mobile Platform devices, Christopher announced a new AT&T SDK which features support for BREW Mobile Platform, continued support for Java and widgets, and includes tools to help developers tap into AT&T network capabilities as they design and code their applications. The new AT&T SDK is available starting today at sdk.developer.att.com.
Taking the AT&T Developer Program to the Next Level
AT&T has a longstanding commitment to the developer community. It was among the first major carriers to offer a developer program and has been rated the top carrier development program for the past three years by Evans Data. Today, AT&T executives also announced plans, including some launch schedules, for a series of new or enhanced developer resources including:
Technical support for developers via live chat -- something no other carrier, operating system provider or handset maker offers today – and a tripling of overall tech support by mid-2010.
* Revenue share featuring a standardized 70/30 split for third-party developers in the AT&T App Center.
* AT&T Sandbox, a virtual network environment for developers to test and evaluate applications, which is planned to be available in 2Q 2010.
* AT&T Developer Dashboard, a tool that will let developers track the status of their app once submitted to AT&T, support digital signing of business agreements with AT&T, allow developers to set prices for their apps, and provide performance metrics and customer satisfaction feedback. The dashboard is available now for enterprise application developers and the certification of emerging devices. And for AT&T's consumer development community, the dashboard will also provide needed automation which is planned for the first quarter of 2010.
* New marketing and referral relationships announced today between AT&T and other global carriers using GSM, the de facto world standard for wireless technology. The companies intend to create streamlined processes that help developers make their applications available to their combined base of hundreds of millions of customers.
* AT&T Developer Council, an advisory group hosted by AT&T and made up of leading development and technology companies and other influencers, such as EA Games, Telenav and Bonfire Media.
AT&T also announced a trial program with WaveMarket to make network location information accessible through Veriplace, WaveMarket's cloud location aggregation platform currently in use by more than 1,000 developers. Veriplace allows SMS, Web, WAP and IVR developers to develop location-aware apps and services across device categories and participating carriers. The trial program will launch in the coming weeks.
AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan also said that a new AT&T Virtual Innovation Lab will open in Atlanta in the second quarter to provide developer support for speech, location and messaging APIs (application programming interfaces). In addition, two new Innovation Centers, one in the East and one in the West, are planned for late 2010 to provide 3G and 4G RF (radio frequency) development support, testing and demos.
Company Also Plans to Launch Five Android-Based Devices in First Half of 2010
Las Vegas, Nevada, January 6, 2010
newsrelease
AT&T today announced plans to launch five new devices from Dell, HTC and Motorola based on the Android platform. The company also announced a major initiative to expand the universe of mobile applications beyond smartphones to more mobile phones – and spur future app development for emerging consumer electronics devices, its U-verse TV platform, and enterprise and small business workplaces.
At the 4th annual AT&T Developer Summit in Las Vegas, executives outlined details including:
* New devices that will give customers the most robust choices of major operating systems (OS), including Android™, in the U.S.
* A goal to offer all major smartphone OS app stores
* An agreement with Qualcomm to standardize apps development for mid-range Quick Messaging Devices using BREW Mobile Platform. These devices are used by millions of customers who historically have not had the same convenient access as smartphone customers to the market's hottest apps
* A new AT&T SDK (software developer kit) to help developers immediately begin to develop apps for these devices
* A significantly enhanced developer program and new relationships with global carriers that are intended to make it easier for developers to distribute apps in markets outside the U.S.
* Future initiatives to enable developers to create more apps for AT&T's U-verse TV, emerging consumer electronics devices, and businesses
* A new AT&T Virtual Innovation Lab and two new Innovation Centers, which will help developers and spur apps development
"Applications help consumers realize the full value and benefits of mobile broadband networks, services and devices," said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "Today some AT&T customers can take advantage of more than 100,000 apps – but only if they have the right handset. Our goal is to bring more apps to millions more of our customers who want convenient access to the market's hottest apps. At the same time, in the future, we plan to go well beyond mobile devices to spur apps development."
In addition to ultimately giving more customers more choices of applications, the long-term strategic initiatives announced today will make it easier for developers to cost effectively create applications and reach broader audiences, and help AT&T drive data revenues.
Extend Smartphone Leadership
AT&T will further its leadership in smartphones with the planned launch of five new devices from Dell, HTC and Motorola based on the Android platform. Those devices, which are scheduled to be available during the first half of 2010, include:
* A Motorola smartphone, powered by MOTOBLUR, with a unique form factor and an AT&T exclusive
* Dell's first smartphone, based on the Android platform and an AT&T exclusive
* A HTC smartphone, based on the Android platform, and an AT&T exclusive
AT&T customers with these devices will benefit not only from the nation's fastest 3G network but also the ability to simultaneously talk on the phone while surfing the Web or reading email. Customers can sign up for email notifications as more details are available at www.att.com/android.
In addition, AT&T announced its goal to lead the industry in application choices for smartphone customers by offering all major app stores. It will preload the corresponding store for each device -- giving customers convenient access to thousands of apps optimized for their smartphone. Today, AT&T added to existing agreements with Nokia for Ovi store and Microsoft for Windows Marketplace by announcing an agreement for Android Market. It expects to announce more app store agreements in the near future and will offer carrier billing as an easy and convenient payment option for as many stores as possible.
'Apps for All' by Standardizing Apps Development with Brew Mobile Platform
De la Vega also announced a significant new agreement with Qualcomm to standardize apps development by adopting BREW Mobile Platform. With this agreement, AT&T intends to make BREW Mobile Platform its primary operating system platform for Quick Messaging Devices, one of the company's fastest growing categories of devices.
AT&T customers with these devices historically haven't had the same convenient access as AT&T smartphone customers to thousands of compelling, new applications. Since AT&T launched its pioneering line-up of Quick Messaging Devices in fall 2008, about 30 percent of the company's postpaid customers who are new or upgrading have purchased this type of device. AT&T is committed to spurring innovation and apps development for the millions of customers in this category.
Quick Messaging Devices are integrated devices that are value priced and texting centric; they have full QWERTY keyboards, either physical or virtual, and, since this past fall, full Web browsing capabilities. Customers with these devices are more likely to demand apps, subscribe to messaging and data plans, and are a large potential market for application developers, according to AT&T research.
AT&T Chief Marketing Officer David Christopher announced plans to begin rolling out Quick Messaging Devices with BREW Mobile Platform in the second half of the year, so that by year end 2011, about 90 percent of AT&T's devices in this segment are planned to be based on BREW Mobile Platform. AT&T announced that Samsung will be its first device maker to launch a Quick Messaging Device featuring BREW Mobile Platform. HTC, LG and Pantech also are building devices featuring BREW Mobile Platform for planned availability in late 2010 or early 2011.
"Today, developers must essentially rebuild apps for different handsets and operating systems, increasing their costs, slowing the pace of innovation and stalling the delivery of mobile apps to customers," Christopher said. "We want to tear down the barriers and make it much easier for developers to reach our customers – and for our customers to access apps. Moving to one platform for this fast growing segment of devices will help developers reach millions more customers who want easy access to the hottest mobile apps."
To help developers jumpstart apps development for AT&T's BREW Mobile Platform devices, Christopher announced a new AT&T SDK which features support for BREW Mobile Platform, continued support for Java and widgets, and includes tools to help developers tap into AT&T network capabilities as they design and code their applications. The new AT&T SDK is available starting today at sdk.developer.att.com.
Taking the AT&T Developer Program to the Next Level
AT&T has a longstanding commitment to the developer community. It was among the first major carriers to offer a developer program and has been rated the top carrier development program for the past three years by Evans Data. Today, AT&T executives also announced plans, including some launch schedules, for a series of new or enhanced developer resources including:
Technical support for developers via live chat -- something no other carrier, operating system provider or handset maker offers today – and a tripling of overall tech support by mid-2010.
* Revenue share featuring a standardized 70/30 split for third-party developers in the AT&T App Center.
* AT&T Sandbox, a virtual network environment for developers to test and evaluate applications, which is planned to be available in 2Q 2010.
* AT&T Developer Dashboard, a tool that will let developers track the status of their app once submitted to AT&T, support digital signing of business agreements with AT&T, allow developers to set prices for their apps, and provide performance metrics and customer satisfaction feedback. The dashboard is available now for enterprise application developers and the certification of emerging devices. And for AT&T's consumer development community, the dashboard will also provide needed automation which is planned for the first quarter of 2010.
* New marketing and referral relationships announced today between AT&T and other global carriers using GSM, the de facto world standard for wireless technology. The companies intend to create streamlined processes that help developers make their applications available to their combined base of hundreds of millions of customers.
* AT&T Developer Council, an advisory group hosted by AT&T and made up of leading development and technology companies and other influencers, such as EA Games, Telenav and Bonfire Media.
AT&T also announced a trial program with WaveMarket to make network location information accessible through Veriplace, WaveMarket's cloud location aggregation platform currently in use by more than 1,000 developers. Veriplace allows SMS, Web, WAP and IVR developers to develop location-aware apps and services across device categories and participating carriers. The trial program will launch in the coming weeks.
AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan also said that a new AT&T Virtual Innovation Lab will open in Atlanta in the second quarter to provide developer support for speech, location and messaging APIs (application programming interfaces). In addition, two new Innovation Centers, one in the East and one in the West, are planned for late 2010 to provide 3G and 4G RF (radio frequency) development support, testing and demos.
@Goona
Who said it was Apple blocking Android from coming to AT&T? I'd assume it's always been AT&T's choice. They had exclusivity with the iPhone, which brought in most of their customers. Now that their exclusivity is running out and they need something else big to bring (or keep) customers. With all the choices of Android and WebOS (and every other phone OS) on all the other networks, I'm sure AT&T realizes they have absolutely nothing now and they need to play catch-up.
@cherryboom
Exactly Android is garbage. The only reason these clowns are supporting it is because they are anti-Apple. They support everything that isn't Apple, losers.
@Goona
Hi. I'm typing this from my Mac, while syncing my iPod Touch and browsing the iTunes Store. I also own an HTC Hero and wouldn't want an iPhone for any reason. But I forgot, it's not possible to own Apple products but like Android more than the iPhone, right? It just couldn't be that the iPhone just isn't that impressive.
Seriously, grow up. People use the devices that suit them better. Android is a very powerful and open OS and gives users a lot of choice. I use the Apple products that are actually useful but if I find something better, why would I stick with something I feel is inferior just because it has a certain piece of half-eaten fruit on it?
@sfox8
I don't give a damn how many Macs you own or ipod touches you sync to them. If you haven't noticed the anti-Apple people on this site which is the majority in support of Android then you are blind.
AT&T: "Bringing you Android on the nations fastest 3G network.....that we beg you not to use!"
@brown like dookie
But all the x about of apps ads will now be helping everyone else that gets the iPhone. Also, Verizon pimping the droid is different because the flipback and dell mini 3 does not equal the droid.
@Goona
Don't put words in my mouth. Of course there are anti-Apple users here. Just like there are many people who think everything Apple does is rainbows and sunshine when it's not. From what I've seen, people seem to be just fine supporting Apple when they do something that's actually innovative but when any company becomes stagnant (as with the iPhone) or makes mistakes, you're going to get backlash. Google even received backlash from Android fans over the lackluster Android 2.1. There will always be fanboys and haters on either side. It's ignorant statements like "Exactly Android is garbage" that do nothing but add fuel to the fire.
I hope this is the thing that finally pushes the iPhone out and causes it to fail in the US.
Yeah, about time! Here in SoCal I don't have much issue with ATT (except my house where I'm on a hill and closest tower is on other side, so it sucks here) but in my car and especially at work where they put mini towers in all of our buildings (Boeing) its solid 5 bars of 3G all day. Wanting to replace my old HTC Hermes soon with something at least as customizable with a nice big screen. (older eyes!) I enjoy keyboards and am not a Apple fan. (iPhone is nice, but doesn't fit my needs) Will be watching Android vs WM6.5/7......
Darn no X10! Freaking T-Mobile and their crappy 3g coverage
Well I want a hw keyboard so the Dell is out and the cliq sucks so hopefully HTC will supply a good one! Otherwise it might be a new carrier or just hang on to my 3gs longer
@sfox8
Dude go look up the word stagnate in the dictionary. Apparently you haven't been reading this site. Anything positive said about Apple is downranked while if you say something negative about them its upranked.
microsoft is getting screwed.
This confirms that the world will end in 2012.
Please be the predecessor to Nexus One?
Guess we'll be seeing that CDMA iPhone this year afterall.
@Goona
What are you saying exactly too? He didn't make any points, You accuse others of being Apple haters, but from your previous posts I can see that you're exactly the opposite. Apple could sell you your own crap and you'd ask if they could raise the price. I currently have an iPhone 3G, and it's a good phone. The reason I didn't get a 3GS was because I was waiting for AT&T to fulfill their promise to release Android phones. It took a lot longer than I thought, and I probably could have gotten a 3GS while I waited for Android.
I don't get your blind defense of Apple; Android is available on AT&T now. Why would you not choose a phone based on the features you want. How is Android "garbage"? All you do is look like a kid stuck with an iPhone whose dad won't le him upgrade so you defend to the end.
@TheGM
It's garbage to me, sue me.
The next iPhone needs to go from 3rd gear to like 6th gear now!! So add multi-tasking now Mr. Jobs!!! Not in generation 5...
AT&T - HTC Passion/Dragon (w/ Sense UI)
or
Verizon - Nexus One
who will win?
who we release first?
I'd in an upgrade situation and holding tight.
2010 is bring a lot of excitement!
Verizon wont get the iphone till they move over to LTE, it makes no sense for Apple to make a CDMA phone when it will be outdated in a few years. For those that dont know Apple came to Verizon first and Verizon wanted their VCAST and other useless services on it and Apple wouldnt have it so blame Verizon for why they dont have it. I work for AT&T and I can say for a fact that the radio in the iphone is crap, is the network perfect no, does money need to be spent to fix issues yes but Apple has some changes that need to be made to fix the radio.
@Goona Except you still haven't given a reason why it's garbage.
I've got an iPhone and am a day 1 adopter. Foolishly paid $600 for it because it was cutting edge, innovative and amazing. Now 2 1/2 years later I'm well out of contract (actually never was under one) and I have no desire to upgrade to the 3GS. Why? Because it offers me nothing that my original 2G iPhone doesn't offer me, especially given AT&T's spotty 3G network.
It has a faster processor and 3G, but what else "innovative" has Apple done in the past 3 years?
At this point in the game I"m going to give Apple a fair shake and wait to upgrade until June and the next release, but if all they do is up the storage, add a forward facing camera and up the screen resolution then they can keep it because THOSE THINGS AREN"T INNOVATIVE. Innovative is introducing new form factors and revolutionizing software, making a game changing upgrade (like when the first iPhone came out.)
If they don't make some big strides I'm ebaying my jailbroken iPhone and getting an HTC Android because Android is so open and Sense is beutiful.
i have reread all the comments from yesterday, and over the last three months of ATT bashing, and i gotta say i got a laugh.
people have repeatedly made fun of ATT for not having android on their product line and bashed because the only good thing on it was the iphone.
and now that it has 5 android phones being released on it, everyones now talking shit about it because it IS getting android.
wtf is everyones problem here? are most of you under the age of 18 or something?
@xberxinfinity can't say that I am one of those people that make fun have AT&T for not having android phones so I wouldn't talk crap about them about that. But what I can say is that I think it sucks for the android phones to go on to AT&T because it seems as though AT&T are going to cripple these Android phones to the point where they are going to need crutches to hold themselves up. I mean there is already talk about them taking the gmail app off the android phones...WHAT NEXT?
HTC Bravo please!
@chripuck
i have an iPhone 3G, had a 1st gen iPhone, and didn't upgrade to the 3GS because I know they'd have a major step in june. I also do admit that Android has some nice customization options on top of the iPhone, and is an evolutionary step in terms of features, but not anything revoutionary upon the original iPhone. I honestly fail to see how you could possibly say the iPhone 3G and 3Gs were not an evolution of the original iPhone. You act like Android even stood a chance until apple unveiled the iPhone. Apple didn't invent anything, the thing they did that was revolutionary was make it easy to use. I think android is a great platform, and while it is nice for tweakers and modders, I don't think it is revolutionary for most people. For geeks like us and vendors maybe but for the rest of the "regular" non-tech world they could care less.
You still have a 1G iphone wtf man?!? You don't even have GPS, a compass, OpenGL processing, not to mention 3G. The speed on a 3GS is DRASTICALLY different. GPS is probably the most amazing feature on the whole phone. I have used an HTC Hero signifigantly and while I can tell you the UI and everything is awesome it really is not quite as polished as the iPhone. You can say what you want, but for the regular user figuring out how to use the majority of the futures, the damn thing is just not as simple as on an iPhone. You can call all iPhone users stupid if you want but I believe the days of having more features that are hard to access is over. No one wants that and nothing will ever become popular using that philosophy. Keyboards and mice are dying, we are constantly looking for new ways to interact with our devices now. With touch, voice recognition, and devices like natal, the complex interaction idea is losing steam by the minute, and it's going to cascade until it no longer exists. If apple is smart the'll find a way to evolve the basic concepts that were improved upon when Android was released. If anything the two groups are working together in being competitive.
As for android, the whole concept of HTC skinning Android with it's own UI shows the exact problem with the entire OS. Interestingly enough the biggest problem is also it's best selling point.
It's open.
That's awesome, but I don't think most users give to craps about whether they have an HTC widget, a google widget, multiple keyboards, crazy plugins, skins, and whatnot. They just want the thing to work well out of the box. My girlfriend has a hero and I havent' seen her use the damn thing near the capacity i've used my iPhone, or in fact as much as I see other iPhone users use their iPhone. It truly is still easier to use. It took her 2 hours to realize the HTC Widget time zone didn't correspond to the own devices time zone. I played with it and figured it out but talk about unintuitive. I'm still trying to find out if it was a bug or what. When I play with it I see how powerful of a device it is, and that intrigues me, not 80% of the smartphone buying public. Android fans sound a lot like Linux fans always ranting and raving how great it is to have until they need something upgraded or get it fixed. Updates on with sense UI? Guess we'll have to wait till HTC decides to ugprade that with every android release, and even if they want to. If you have a google experience phone, then great (droid, N1, G1) but really with all this segmentation it's going slow the addition of new features across the board once phones keep getting paired with different customization options. Why do you think google made the "own" phone.
The best and worst part of the iPhone? It's a closed environment. You know that everything that is on the phone is supposed to work as advertised, and it's easy to get to. It's all been filtered through Apple. Is this bad? perhaps, it's how you look at it. If apple decides to add a feature you can be sure it's going to work across the spectrum, and work well. It may be missing a piece, but the pieces that are there will be solid. I dock my phone to charge it everyday, my music and podcasts are immediately synced. Play music on my apple TV, synced. Put my ipod in the car, synced. Change contacts, synced. No guessing games, no having to set up software to make it happen, no dragging stuff. It's all been methodically figured out for me. If you don't like that, then go somewhere else. Perhaps that's why its kinda a cult thing, you have to have faith, it's designed to JUST work. And yes that may not be always the case, but for most people it just does, moreso than any other mainstream smartphone.
I deal with computers all day in a very complex manner, linux, windows server, cisco, ASP, PHP scripting all kinds of crap. I have a good understanding of how complex it can get. But at the end of the day when I get home I'll leave the tinkering to you boys. I just want to use the damn thing. If android can create an ecosystem that allows all of my gadgets to work together as well as apple does i'll think about getting it, or perhaps they'll have some killer app. But for now it really is just a matter of preference, either your in or your out. It's as simple as that.
You people are in denial if you think the iPhone is just going to drop in popularity because of Android. I'm glad someone is giving apple some competition it can only be better for all of us. You know there is a crack team of people dissecting ever piece of the android experience right now attempting to emulate if not innovate that on the next itteration of the iPhone. But i'll tell you if at some point in this "game" android looks like it is fully ahead of the pack I have no problem switching platforms. The only reason I use Apple now is I think they have been on to something, and i'm not going to jump ship now because the rest of the industry has just decided to catch up.
All my thoughts:
I've used all four networks, and AT&T is hands down the best network in my area. It may not be the greatest, but it's not half as bad as people try to make it. The only people that cry and complain are those who a) switch for an iPhone or b) haven't used the network before.
Sprint has no signal anywhere.
T-Mobile bad, but better than Sprint.
Verizon is as good as AT&T, but their data is a joke.
I think that the five phones will be
1) Dell Mini 3i (garunteed)
2) Motorola Backflip (garunteed)
3) HTC Hero (95 percent sure)
4) HTC Nexus One (Rebranded, not likely)
5) HTC Bravo (Not likely, won't be ready by launch time)
Dell's phone has to be really good to compete. Personally, I don't like it.
The Backflip is better than everyone says it is. Just because it's not an überphone doesn't make it bad.
We saw evidence of the HTC hero for AT&T before it came to Sprint, so I've very certain they're getting one. A Nexus One sounds unlikely, but it could happen. And I doubt the Bravo would even be ready to be released by the time these get launched.
I predict AT&T will launch these by the end of February.
And that's everything I think :)