More details from Google's Android press release

We're probably going to be hearing a lot about Google's Open Handset Alliance and Android mobile phone software platform in the days to come, but the official press release contains quite a few things to chew on while we wait for the deluge. The big dogs in OHA appear to be Google, T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm and Motorola, but the list of companies that have joined the group is insanely long -- we're counting 33, and that's just the companies who've joined as of today. Notables include Intel, LG, Samsung, Sprint Nextel, KDDI, Broadcom, Marvell, Texas Intruments, NVIDIA, and eBay (probably because of Skype). Equally interesting are the prominent absences from the list -- it looks like Nokia, Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon and Softbank aren't in on this party just yet. Peep the full list of companies after the break.

Read -- OHA press release
Read -- OHA members page

• Aplix
• Ascender Corporation
• Audience
• Broadcom
• China Mobile
• eBay
• Esmertec
• Google
• HTC
• Intel
• KDDI
• LivingImage
• LG
• Marvell
• Motorola
• NMS Communications
• Noser
• NTT DoCoMo
• Nuance
• NVIDIA
• PacketVideo
• Qualcomm
• Samsung
• SiRF
• SkyPop
• Sonivox
• Sprint Nextel
• Synaptics
• TAT
• Telecom Italia
• Telefonica
• Texas Instruments
• T-Mobile
• Wind River
  

[Karl_jv @ Nov 5th 2007 12:10PM]

eBay is not randomly... it is Skype

[Shunnabunich @ Nov 5th 2007 12:20PM]

Microsoft? Avoiding endorsement of an open-source software product like the plague? Say it isn't so! :P

I don't think "in on this party just yet" is quite the right phrase, for them at least. Perhaps "trying to halfheartedly imitate and then outright crush" would be more apt.

[Tristan @ Nov 5th 2007 6:03PM]

Aren't we forgetting apple? They make phones too

[Shunnabunich @ Nov 5th 2007 6:09PM]

True, but I don't think anybody ever expected Apple to drink from anyone else's well but their own anyway.

[prateeko @ Nov 5th 2007 12:27PM]

at&t avoiding open-source software after bowing down to Stevie J's demands?

Really, very shocking.

[Jesse S @ Nov 5th 2007 12:32PM]

What? How does that closed, Fischer Price platform have anything to do with this?

[prateeko @ Nov 5th 2007 12:37PM]

Uhh, lets see. at&t coughs up a lot of cash/time/effort to be with Apple and their closed source platform. Now why the hell would they jump ship onto an open-source platform? That'd make all the time/effort with Apple a waste.

Similarly, Verizon/Vodefone has spent a **** load of money on their own platform, why piss all that away for the Android?

See what I did there?

[Jesse S @ Nov 5th 2007 12:31PM]

SiRF and Samsung?

I think I'm going to --!

[hiimcliff @ Nov 5th 2007 12:38PM]

yea sirf is one of the names that caught my attention also. now when this drops with some htc hardware, what the hell am i going to do with my unlocked iphone?

[Ryan @ Nov 5th 2007 12:55PM]

@himmcliff

Sell it to me. I'm still using a phone that's +3 years old.

[3rdsun @ Nov 5th 2007 12:54PM]

I'm surprised Apple isn't on the list. Wait a minute Apple doesn't play nice with anybody so I'm be surprised

[3rdsun @ Nov 5th 2007 12:56PM]

This is a great step towards dethroning Microsoft and winning one for open source.

[Ray-- @ Nov 5th 2007 1:30PM]

lol dethrone? MS isn't actually on the mobile OS throne depsite your hatred toward them...

[Tom @ Nov 5th 2007 1:51PM]

who cares if AT&T isn't on there. You will be able to use any quad band GSM phone on their network, and if this OS is going to be like i think it is, it will be pretty much totally customizable and powerful.

The Verizon camp is SOL, since its much harder to port handsets to their network

[paul34 @ Nov 5th 2007 2:13PM]

As far as I'm concerned, Verizon and ATT can stay out of this alliance ad infinitum.

[Reid Conti @ Nov 5th 2007 2:14PM]

Hey, this may kill Verizon, nice!

I'm very happy with my iPhone, but excited to see a true competitor in this space. The mobile handset market has been, quite frankly, pathetic. Windows Mobile is next to unusable. If anyone can create a truly competitive and innovative mobile OS, it's Google. Competition means we all win, whether it's the iPhone, Google's mobile OS, or some new entry to the market.

Can't wait to get my hands on it!

[jonas @ Nov 5th 2007 2:59PM]

htc is notable but samsung isnt? lol. isnt samsung like the third biggest mobile phone company in the world?

[jonas @ Nov 5th 2007 3:00PM]

i meant "a big dog".

[Linc @ Nov 5th 2007 4:37PM]

Samsung: Second largest cellphone company in the world. Moto is falling;
they're third or fourth now.

[TiMO @ Nov 5th 2007 4:36PM]

It will be very interesting to see how the networks react when it launches. They still control the QOS and the provisioning etc... Open OS, Open Platform, infinite amount of widgets/apps built to run etc.. they still run through the operators network which, if goes down, is about whom we'll complain.. so they have to be worried about that...

[Kevin @ Nov 5th 2007 5:08PM]

This is just going to fragment the market further and make it harder for developers to create mobile apps.

Symbian has been a very open platform, in fact in the previous version developers could get to anywhere int the file system, any server or app, whatever. It is a powerful and flexible system. Recently they have had to introduce stringent security measures because hackers were taking an interest and people started to get viruses hopping between devices via IP and bluetooth.

Android is going to face all the same issues so for the next couple of years we can watch it be disfunctional, inflexible and insecure until it catches up to the level that Symbian is now - not sure what the point of all that would be.

If Google wants better browsing on mobiles why doesn't it just develop a better browser for current mobile OSs? That would be much simpler, quicker and more useful.

[fastboxster @ Dec 17th 2007 11:37AM]

I think supporters of Symbian (Nokia and Sony) are not big enough (in brand equity) and agile enough to get buy-in on the kinds of ambitious projects anticipated with Android. Symbian didn't even have an abstraction on radios and video graphics hardware until Screenplay and Freeway were announced in October this year. Google is in a much better position to "make things happen". I don't think Symbian will lose market share for a while, but this is exactly the kind of competition needed to bump the technology up to the next level. The technology sat stagnant too long. We have Steve Jobs to thank for setting the stage.