Android Atlas

(Credit: Screenshot by Scott Webtser/CNET)

Google has been busy the last few days with updates to the official Android Developers blog. With new code samples and resources, the blog is becoming a better resource for the very people who Google depends on to elevate the platform.

On Thursday, Google unveiled the Device Dashboard, which breaks down the current composition of devices accessing the Android Market. The tool is designed to help current and prospective developers get a feel for which versions of Android they should be coding.

The Dashboard already shows that writing for Android 1.1 would be a waste of time, as only 0.3 percent of current handsets are running it. On the other hand, Android 2.0 and 2.1 already account for nearly 18 percent of all handsets accessing the Android Market. Two handsets running Android 1.6, the T-Mobile G1 and MyTouch 3G, make up a majority at 54 percent.

The dashboard is a welcome move to developers who were upset over the different builds of Android that already exist. At least now they have a better understanding about which versions have the most traction and which might be dying off.

Yesterday, Google also released a new set of sample codes to help developers understand some of the features found in Android 1.6 and 2.0. These codes range from creating interactive home screen widgets to getting your applications to speak using text-to-speech (speech synthesis). The developer site got an additional makeover, as a new "Resources" tab now lists frequently asked questions (FAQs), tutorials, and technical articles.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

On Thursday, Sprint revised a tweet it sent out last week regarding an Android update for the Samsung Moment and HTC Hero. Both smartphones won't be getting an Android 2.0 update; instead, they will get Android 2.1. (Pause for applause.)

The carrier made the announcement via its Twitter account, but unfortunately didn't provide any more specific details as to when the updates might be rolled out other than it would be sometime in the first half of 2010.

Currently, only the Nexus One is running Android 2.1. While features of this version of the operating system are still largely unknown, some people have spied enhancements including a Palm WebOS-like Deck of Cards feature, more home screen panes, and additional 3D items in the app tray.

(Additional sources: Engadget Mobile, Gearlog)

(Credit: Screenshot by Scott Webtser/CNET)

Effective Wednesday, T-Mobile customers with a Google Android phone running version 1.6 of the operating system will begin receiving an update to their Android Market. After installing the update and opening the Market, users can access a "T-Mobile Top Picks" section that showcases applications there were selected by the carrier. Besides being innovative, these applications can a great jumping off point for new users looking to personalize their handsets.

So far, there are 20 applications listed in the Top Picks. Though a quarter of the titles were developed by T-Mobile, most of the apps are free. The only paid titles are Absolute Fitness, FaceIT, FlightStats for Android, and Gem Miner: Dig Deep. Two included applications, Pandora Radio and Aloqa, are consistently ranked among the top rated and most download in the Android Market.

T-Mobile offers customers even more recommendations with the carrier's "AppPack." Serving as a filter for the Android Market, AppPack lets users browse apps that have been handpicked and tagged by T-Mobile. After launching with roughly 10 apps in its list, it expanded to include more than 30 yesterday.

The nice thing about AppPack is that it can run in the background and receive updates. Users will receive occasional notifications of new apps and will be directed to the Android Market to download them. With both Top Picks and AppPack, T-Mobile's aim is to introduce apps to people who might not have come across them otherwise.

(Credit: Screenshot by Scott Webster/CNET)

The Android Market has grown from zero applications to 20,000 strong in a little over a year. According to Androidlib, a Web site dedicated to tracking the Android Market, the milestone was reached on Tuesday. While this is an unofficial tally, it's a telling figure nonetheless.

Android shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the number of applications is growing from month to month. After taking nearly 10 months to cross the 10,000 mark, the market doubled in size over the next five months.

With all the talk of unhappy developers, it's still becoming increasingly obvious that developers aren't sitting on the sideline any longer. I can't think of one company or team still taking the "wait and see" approach. The largest mobile application market, Apple's App Store, has over 100,000 applications available, but many analysts believe Android has the potential to contend with the iPhone in the coming year.

While the number of apps may have doubled in the last five months, the mix between paid and free titles has remained practically unchanged. Free applications accounted for roughly 64 percent of the selections back in September, whereas today that number is around 62 percent.

The Google phone may use what is probably the fastest smartphone chip on the planet and could become the first non-Windows smartphone to tap into this kind of processing power.

Conspicious among the Google phone's leaked specifications is the Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm. Snapdragon is the first gigahertz-class ARM-based processor to be used in smartphones. (In current implementations, Snapdragon runs at 1GHz.)

The Google phone's Snapdragon processor is one of the fastest smartphone chips.

(Credit: Cory O'Brien via Twitter)

And the Google phone (aka, Nexus One) would--if it becomes an actual product--have some interesting company, though both of the rival phones that use the chip are in the Windows Mobile camp: the Toshiba TG01 and HTC HD2.

Interestingly, all of these phones have, relatively speaking, large screens: more than four inches in diagonal size. The Google phone will also add high-resolution (based on an OLED touchscreen) to that.

What's the big picture on all of this? Smartphones are getting larger and more like small tablets (or "media pads"--which is really a more apt description) and their functionality is becoming more akin to personal computers. So, faster processors are necessary (let's not forget Nvidia's Tegra chip or Texas Instrument's OMAP processor) to handle the increasing hardware and software workloads.

Sort of sounds like the old PC mantra. Bigger, better, faster. Bigger storage/memory capacities, better (increasingly sophisticated) operating systems, and faster processors. Which is why Intel is sprinting as fast it can to get its "x86" PC architecture into smartphones. But this market is going to be a hard one to crack for Intel, no matter how much it wows device makers with its technology and marketing clout.

Look no further than Microsoft for proof. Despite its size and status, it is currently losing the smartphone (Windows Mobile) mindshare (and market share) battle to the Apple iPhone. And prospects won't improve with the emergence of devices--such as the Motorola Droid and Google Phone--based on Google's Android operating system, not to mention other popular platforms such as the BlackBerry.

The bottom line is that silicon competition will be varied and vigorous in the smartphone market--unlike the PC space. Which makes the unveiling of every new major smartphone all the more interesting.

Updated on December 15 at 2:20 p.m. PST: adding changes to reflect that it is not yet officially known whether a Google-branded phone would be a commercial product--though a number of reports claim such a phone will be sold next year.

(Credit: FCC)

Updated at 4:20 PST with response from T-Mobile.

After a busy weekend where it made its very unofficial debut, HTC's Nexus One entered into full legitimacy Monday with approval by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC documents also reveal that the device will support North American GSM bands (850 and 1900) and T-Mobile's 1700 3G network.

Though at least one Nexus One sighted this weekend was running on an AT&T SIM card, the support for T-Mobile's 3G would leave AT&T out of the running for the Nexus One, at least for now. The two carriers use the same GSM bands for voice calls, but their 3G networks are incompatible.

T-Mobile said it doesn't comment on rumors or speculation, but its participation in the Nexus One (aka the "Google phone") would send a mixed message concerning how the device would be distributed to consumers. The Wall Street Journal reported today that Google would directly sell the Nexus One as an unlocked unsubsidized model. Distribution through a carrier channel, however, would mean that Google wouldn't sell the Nexus One on its own.

Details and specs on the Nexus One remain mostly unknown, but the FCC documentation also shows that the handset would support hearing aids, a microSD card slot, Bluetooth, and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.

(Source: Phonescoop)

As a company that has built a business model atop trust, Google is in a sticky position as it prepares to formally introduce the Nexus One phone.

Google's Nexus One phone could be a sea change in how Google works with Android partners who might turn into competitors.

(Credit: Cory O'Brien via Twitter)

Google employees were given free Nexus One phones at a company party Friday night, and the Internet went into a tizzy. Reports surfaced later in the weekend that this device was the long-awaited Google phone, the company's answer to Apple's strategy of controlling the hardware, software, and distribution model with the iPhone, rather than the partner-oriented strategy of developing the guts of the operating system and letting partners each put their own stamp on the finished product.

Just two months ago, Google's Andy Rubin rolled his eyes when asked about an analyst report picked up by TheStreet.com that said Google planned to pursue this exact strategy. He said Google had no plans to make its own hardware--which is one thing since smartphones are almost exclusively manufactured by contractors in China and Taiwan--but he took a further step in spending about 10 minutes arguing why it would be a bad idea for Google to design its own phone and sell it outside of carrier channels.

That line of thinking resonated with many who follow Google and the mobile industry. After all, Google's stated goal for Android ever since the project was revealed in November 2007 was to create an "ecosystem" of multiple phones that would help improve access to the mobile Internet. And Google seemed to finally reach that goal this year, with over a dozen phones in the wild and more promised from some of the world's leading phone makers and wireless carriers.

But if the reports are correct, Google is about to make a radical departure from that strategy. And Google's new course would take it down a path that could sow distrust among the company's Open Handset Alliance partners, who must now be wondering if they're about to get into a marketing war with one of the tech industry's richest companies.

Katie Watson, a Google representative, said on Sunday that the company has confirmed nothing about its plans for the Nexus One, described as a "dogfooding" experiment for internal testing by the company in a blog post Saturday.

In the rush to anoint the Nexus One as the Google Phone, it's quite possible that the tech industry glossed over the fact that Google already sells Android phones, albeit on a limited basis. For quite some time, registered Android developers have been able to buy completely unlocked versions of the G1 and the T-Mobile MyTouch3G (also known as the Google Ion) for $399.

Google does sell some phones, such as the Google Ion, but only to developers for Android testing purposes.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

So there is a solid chance that the Nexus One is merely the Android Dev Phone 3, following the Dev Phone 1 (G1) and Dev Phone 2 (MyTouch or Ion). Just this year, Google handed out Dev Phone 2 models branded as the Google Ion to attendees at Google I/O 2009, but if regular people want to buy that particular phone they have to get the MyTouch3G from T-Mobile with a two-year contract.

It does seem clear that Google has played the premier role in designing the software for the Nexus One. In the company's blog post over the weekend, it said "we recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe."

But the key unconfirmed detail is how Google plans to sell this phone. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google plans to sell this phone unsubsidized on its own, with consumers able to choose a wireless service provider after the fact. However, according to corporate sibling Peter Kafka at All Things D's MediaMemo and Reuters, Google has plans to hook up with longtime mobile partner T-Mobile to help sell the Nexus One through Google's Web site for $199.

How will Google market this phone? Anyone with a television set has likely seen an ad over the last month for the Motorola Droid, an Android phone sold for Verizon's network that has been billed as one of the best Android phones to date. It was also the launch pad for a long-term pact between Google and Verizon that will supposedly produce a family of devices based on Android.

If Google plans to sell the Nexus One directly to consumers, will it insist upon using its brand as the lead brand, rather than the "With Google" branding found on the back of many Android phones? Will it blast the airwaves during the NFL playoffs in January to trumpet the arrival of the Nexus One, perhaps just in time for the Super Bowl? And how will that affect partners such as Motorola and Verizon that have sunk so much money into promoting the Droid, only to see rumors of a Google Phone leak out at the worst possible time: the height of the holiday shopping season?

This could be a very telling moment in Google's history. At the moment, Google's mobile division does not seem to be completely in control of the message it wants to send consumers, partners, and competitors.

If Google really does plan to sell the Nexus One directly to consumers and compete with its customers, it has chosen an interesting way to announce it to the world, keeping the Google Phone rumor mill alive for months while publicly denying such plans. Apple has employed such a marketing strategy for years, insisting on near-silence regarding future product plans but benefiting enormously from the frenzy of interest in every little morsel that mysteriously pops up regarding those plans.

However, Google is not Apple. Google public-relations representatives will sheepishly admit that they have little control over how Google rolls out its products: Google is a company run by engineers, and engineers push the button when the product is ready to ship.

But when you're working in an environment with multiple partners that have competing interests, any confusion over your future plans--especially plans that would appear to yank the floor away--can breed distrust among those partners. One of Google's largest problems right now is that it has built a business model geared around the notion that it can be trusted with almost unprecedented control over the flow of information across the globe, and any cracks in that wall of trust will be exploited by its enemies.

With the way details have trickled out about the Nexus One, Google has either alienated current and future Android partners by muscling in on their turf, or set up thousands of eager smartphone consumers looking for an open alternative to the iPhone for disappointment when they realize Google merely plans to sell an expensive unlocked phone to a limited audience, if at all.

After all, Google essentially declared in its blog post that employees are testing a product with "new mobile features and capabilities" that presumably can't be found on the current crop of phones. It's almost the same language Google used to introduce Chrome OS ("our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be") while insisting that it had no competitive reasons for introducing that Netbook operating system.

Few believed that line with Chrome OS, and fewer still will believe that Google is creating Android for the betterment of humanity if it really plans to sell its own phone.

The new Google phone makes an appearance on Twitter.

(Credit: Cory O'Brien via Twitter)

Updated at 5 p.m. PST with additional details and at 10 a.m. PST December 13 with photo of the phone.

A blog post from a Google executive on Saturday morning dropped hints that the company would release a Google Android phone of its own.

In the post, Mario Queiroz, a Google vice president of product management, said the company had developed a "mobile lab" device that "combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android." According to Queiroz, Google has distributed the device to Google employees worldwide so that they could test the new technology and help improve it.

Quieroz's announcement came only a few hours after reported sightings of the device. CNET TV Associate Producer Jason Howell, who had a very brief hands-on with the gadget Friday night and first relayed the news on Twitter, confirms that the "mobile lab" device is an HTC phone running the Android 2.1 operating system.

"I knew it was an HTC device," Howell said. "It looked like the Touch, but was a lot thinner...it was a slick-looking thing and very nice." He also spotted a trackball and four standard Android menu controls, and he said the display was "supersharp" and rivaled that on the Motorola Droid.

Howell didn't get a chance to dig into the handset's specs or detail the changes from the 2.1 update, but he noticed animated wallpapers, slight visual enhancements to the user interface, and a camera on the rear face that resembles the HTC Touch Pro 2. Curiously, Howell said he didn't see any Google logo on the handset. TechCrunch published additional, though unconfirmed, details, including a Snapdragon processor, an OLED touch screen, and a voice-to-text feature, while TheUnlockr posted leaked photos.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the handset will be called the Nexus One. Although HTC made the hardware, the software and user interface is all Google, from the applications to the "look and feel of each screen."

The Journal also said Google will begin selling the device early next year, directly to consumers, thus bypassing the traditional carrier channel. As an unlocked GSM device, the Nexus One could be used with T-Mobile or AT&T, though it's unclear which carrier's 3G bands the handset will support. During his brief tour, Howell wasn't able to test the performance, but he said that the Nexus One he handled was running on an AT&T SIM card.

Reports that Google would release its own Android phone first appeared earlier this year. The move is significant, as it could pit Google against the carriers that it so far has used to distribute existing Android phones. Also, without a carrier contract and subsequent service rebates the Nexus One could cost a few hundred dollars. For those reasons, I was a little skeptical when I first heard the rumor, so count me wrong on this one.

The Milestone is hot

(Credit: Crave U.K.)

If the Motorola Droid is the hottest smartphone in the United States at the moment, and its multitouch-equipped GSM counterpart, the Milestone, may turn out to be even hotter abroad. According to wireless retailer Expansys.com, the exclusive U.K. provider of the handset, its entire stock of the Motorola handset was depleted in less than three hours.

According to a statement posted on Pocket-lint, the Milestone is the fastest selling phone in the Web site's 11-year history, even more successful than the iPhone.

The actual number of handsets sold by Expansys remains unknown, but, according to the retailer, it received more than 1,000 preorders. New Milestone stock is expected soon with Christmas delivery still possible.

Since the handset is being sold with a contract, the nonsubsidized price comes to $763 (449 pounds). Although, J&R Music and Computer World is currently selling the handset through it's Amazon.com store in the United States for $790. While the device can be used for both AT&T and T-Mobile for voice calls, it does not support North American 3G frequencies. Yet, its data connections will work over an EDGE network and with Wi-Fi.