Google Announces 18 New Android Mobile Phones
At the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco on May 27, Google's senior director for mobile platforms Andy Rubin made it public that many new Google phones are expected to appear by end of 2009.
According to an article in the New York Times, Google has a direct scoop on 18 new Android-based mobile phones hitting the market by end of this year, with the number perhaps as high as 20. Four or five of these devices should be real Google phones, that is, they'll have the logo and work with Gmail and other services, such as the G1 from T-Mobile.
A majority of the anticipated phones (12 to 14, according to Rubin) subscribe to Google's "small strings" option whereby manufacturers can load Android for free into their devices, but also agree to include Google applications on them. Another five or six vendors subscribe to the "bigger strings" option where devices need to carry the Google logo, but which includes a "no censorship" clause to protect other Android applications developed on them (no matter the risk involved). The third option is "obligation-free," where the devices have no preloaded Google applications, an environment in which Google has less control and where it is harder to predict how many devices of this type will hit the market.
Altogether eight to nine manufacturers will be producing these devices. Most of the devices should appear in Europe, according to Rubin. It seems carriers and makers in the U.S. want to produce relatively fewer but more highly distinctive Android mobile phones to give themselves a competitive edge.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
LibreOffice Tested as Possible Office 365 Alternative
Another major organization has decided to test the possibility of migrating from Microsoft's Office 365 to LibreOffice.