AT&T won’t offer Android-powered handsets any time soon

By on Nov 7, 2008 at 2:33 PM
General November 7, 2008

The key to Android’s success in the US will undoubtedly be carrier adoption which is still the only effective way to sell handsets in this country – just ask Nokia how its Nseries and Eseries lines are doing here. One carrier however, just isn’t going to cut it. The T-Mobile partnership was a great move for both parties involved and it was a tremendous start to Google’s mobile OS efforts here in the US. T-Mobile was all for it as it brought them hype and exclusivity and Google was all for it as, well, it let them launch a handset. Google has a long road ahead of it on its way to becoming a successful player in the US market however, and having its OS publicly rejected by two of the four major US carriers was surely not a goal. First Sprint CEO Dan Hesse made the now-famous comment that Android isn’t “good enough to put the Sprint brand on,” and now AT&T has made a similar sentiment public. AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega told The San Fransisco Chronicle that while AT&T has been looking into Android for a while, it has no plans of offering an Android-powered handset any time soon. One of the reasons given, which may have been a nice little pot-shot at Google, was that Android needs to “open up more” and offer some “non-Google” applications. Burn. For de la Vega to publicly say that Google’s open OS needs to “open up more” isn’t a good sign. Hopefully next year when the app store is a but more flushed out AT&T will sing a different tune.

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  • http://www.symbiosis60.com Maciek

    Ok…so you say the Android is too Google centric. What about iPhone??? I don’t see any at&t specific apps on it…it’s all about Apple. And on top of that it’s locked up beyond imagination and at&t has nothing to say about it.
    Let’s take another example…Blackberry – all tied to RIM’s email. Sure..other POP/Imap services work but it’s RIM’s service first and then everyone else. Al least with the Android you really are free to do anything you want to. Also at&t with all its wealth is plain stupid for not developing an at&t flavor of Android…they could easily remove Google apps requirement and substitute it with their own. That’s the beauty of an open os but they’re freaking out that the subscribers will be removing those blocks and make the device their own. At&t is simply shitting their pants at the idea that they would give the user control over the device they own.

  • http://www.symbiosis60.com Maciek

    You may not pay for the incoming calls but you sure as hell pay twice as much or more when you call a mobile phone from land line. And on top of that shall we compare the plans with the ones in the US???? I think not.
    I’m originally from Poland. In the US I have 1000 min with free night and weekends for $39.00. In Poland I’d have to pay about $250 to get the equivalent amount of minutes. I won’t mention the text allowance… $15.00 for an unlimited and no different charges whether you text Verizon, at&t, Sprint or any other network. In Europe in general most on most plans you pay a different price depending on the network you’re calling. Plus as a last note – it the US it doesn’t matter whether you’re calling a mobile phone or a land line – always the same cost. What I’m jealous of though is the 1 second increments Europe has for the time calculation where here we go in 1 Minute increments.

  • IHateIt

    If you thing Apple or AT&T is restrictive, try doing anything with a VZW stripped phone. No WiFi and full of VZW branding. They only allow one network, one music store, one map, please be fair in your assessments.

    The G1 is not restrictive. Simple Gmail or Google account and all is easy. Probably the most open device there is. Probably Why MS Steve Ballmer is now dissing it.

    In 2006 Ballmer said that RIM would never beat Windows Mobile and he said in 2007 that Apple had no chance of any market share. We can all see how that turned out! Android will eventually kick Windows Mobile butt.

  • Truman

    Um, Tmobile is fuckin HUGE. Expand the scope of your awareness from being US-centric.

    Apple and android are too similar to sell at the same place, and why would ATT or apple want to risk giving people a cheaper, open source phone?

    Apple’s shit is buggy when it first comes out too. So its not that their waiting for Tmo to fix it. They all make their first run more like beta testing.

    Anyway, why would google particularly care? Their code is available – works on anything compatible… HTC probably cares more.

  • http://www.k5live.com likeabite

    IHateU…now what the hell does what you just said have to do with AT&T not offering Android…matter of fact what the hell does Microsoft or Steve Balmer have to do with it?!?

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