Android skips Barcelona’s mobile-phone party

by admin February 20, 2009 at 6:24 pm

The GMSA Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona could have been a great place for Google to demonstrate progress establishing Android in the industry, but instead the open-source operating system showed only a slightly larger toehold.

Google has high hopes for Android, which the company launched in an effort to spur smartphone development, mobile use of the Web, and new search advertising. Although Android certainly isn’t vaporware, and Google’s clout makes the effort a serious challenge to other operating systems, so far Android’s potential exceeds its real-world presence.

The biggest Android news from the show was the debut of the HTC Magic. This new Android model is the second Android model from the Taiwanese company; the first, HTC’s Dream, is better known as the T-Mobile G1.

The Magic has a touch-screen keyboard, like the Apple iPhone and unlike the Dream’s physical keyboard. Vodafone will offer the Android phone as the exclusive supplier in the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, and France, and as a nonexclusive supplier in Italy.

Read more: news.cnet.com