Android OS still a work in progress

The Linux-based Android smartphone operating system is drawing attention at this year’s Mobile World Congress, but it’s still a work in progress. At the GSM cellular industry’s annual hypefest this week, you can see an array of Android demonstrations, but most of them are prototypes or proof-of-concept devices. Android-based phones that you can actually get your hands won’t appear until later in 2009. Chipmaker Texas Instruments crafted a couple of prototype phones with its latest processor technology, to show what a new Android phone might look and behave like. Reporter Peter Sayer picked up an interesting comment from a TI staffer: Developing software for a new phone typically takes 14 to 18 months, said Ramesh Iyer, mobile Internet device product manager at TI. “Android cuts that dramatically. It’s a disruptor,” he said. When the Android phones start showing up later this year, we’ll get an idea of how big a disruptor it is. The open-source software platform is overseen by the Open Handset Alliance, launched with the key backing of Google. Right now, T-Mobile’s G1, based on an HTC touch phone, remains the only Android phone available in the U.S. There’s been recent feverish speculation that HTC’s Sapphire phone, with a virtual instead of physical QWERTY keyboard, may be the follow-on G2 soon.