“According to a source familiar with the situation, although a large number of people are hard at work on the Gphone and the open-source operating system/platform for mobile devices (Android) the actual Gphone will not be ready for release this year,” Gary Krakow reports for TheStreet.
“The source would not speculate on the possibility that other devices that might run on variants of Android would be ready in time for the Christmas shopping season, nor would the source elaborate on exact reasons for the delay or a possible release date for the Gphone or various Android variants,” Krakow reports.
Full article here.
The delay is called Apple “Patents”
@Martin:
…which gives Apple another year’s worth of head start:-)
Not that patents are necessarily a good thing. I’d like to see Apple’s competitors fail all by themselves.
Until whenever, it’s just vaporware. Rather Microsoftian of Google.
MW: “appeared” as in not!
By the time the thing is released, the world will be speculating about iPhone 3.
gPhone = DOA
can someone please explain what the gphone is? last i know is that google said it will not build a mobile phone, only licence android. there is no gphone or did i miss something?
G phone? gphone?? Does it hit the spot? or does it go to pot??? I would have expected that for someone who has a seat on Apple’s board, that someone would be borrowing the whole tree and not just a leaf would be practising some of said companies marketing philosophy……ie say what you have to you say when you are in a position to backup what you are saying with hard evidence…or in this case hardware not vapourware…….
Just goes to show that having shed loads of cash and a good brain does endow one with the mythical powers of disruptive marketing.
This is foolish of google. Make like apple, put it out as quickly as possible, as a public beta if nessessary, then finish it with updates.
Congrats to MDN on getting the chick in the bikini to star in the new pop up ads! I was soooo tired of seeing that Macbook Air.
Apple spent at least two years on the iPhone before announcing it. Google’s only had about a year so far. In early 2009, it will have been 2 years since the announcement of the iPhone, so it had better top the 2009 version of the iPhone by a wide margin, or it will be just another also ran.
What I find interesting is that Open Source software development is supposed to be faster. This is another example that proves that it is not. I am not saying that Open Source does not have it’s place. It is just not the magic little pill that people want you to believe it is.
Oh, and the cake is a lie too.
All Google’s talk about phones and g-phones makes me wonder what innovations Google could do with string.
Gphone suffers from the same hype that makes Java and Linux popular but real development and adoption roadblocks keep them from taking over the world. Google is only interested in giving away the mobile OS to as many handset carriers that want them, but who has the time to test Android on every handset to make sure it runs better than other mobile OS/platform combo? I’m thinking this may have about as much success as Ubuntu Linux.
Wouldn’a want to be embarrassed by the new iPhone, eh me lads?
I once thought that [frequent OS upgrades] was what kept Longhorn from mooing, silly me.
He’s not the
” rel=”nofollow”>only one who tried it.
I would not trust anything that comes from “TheStreet”, particularly a rumor.
Not easy to come out with a new phone… when iPhone has become as is…
Open source products will NEVER compete effectively with Apple. Never.
> nor would the source elaborate on exact reasons for the delay
Because it’s hard to do. Apple spent years on the iPhone before it was ready for sale.
Apple has the exact same advantages it has with iPod. An “ecosystem” of accessory products, iTunes, and a head start that allows Apple to stay more than one step ahead of the competition.
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t gPhone a reference to Android and not a physical device? Many of you are comparing Android development to iPhone development. I would imagine that all Google has to do is get Android working with an existing Nokia handset and call it a day.
Judging by how many members there are in the Open Handset Alliance, I would imagine that it is like trying to keep kittens in a shoe box.
http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/oha_members.html
Fortunately Apple does not have this problem.