14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that the increasingly popular mobile operating system developed by Google, the Android, is moving beyond the cell phone area after all, and that the first products that will not be handsets, but will be based on the platform, will be unveiled this fall at CEATEC, Japan's largest electronics show, and they are developed by Motorola for KDDI, a Japanese telecommunication service provider.
Masataka Miura, chairman of Open Embedded Software Foundation (OESF), which includes companies like ARM, KDDI, Japan Cable Laboratories, Alpine Electronics and Fujitsu Software Technologies, has announced that the Android-based embedded products will be showcased this year at the said event, while also informing that a larger number of semiconductor companies are interested in joining the Foundation, among which we can count Texas Instruments, Intel, Marvell, Freescale, Qualcomm and Renesas Technology.
Miura has also stated that the Android platform will be used in a set top, which is called “au Box,” a KDDI multipurpose set top that is meant to drive fixed mobile broadcast convergence. The au Box would include capabilities like CD playing, ripping, and storing, while also being able to transfer files through a USB port to a mobile handset or a portable media player. The set-top box is also capable of playing music files through the integrated stereo speakers. Not to mention that video encoding capabilities are also expected to be present with the device.
Undoubtedly, we won't be able to see on the market Android set-tops, TVs, VoIP phones, Karaoke boxes or digital photo frames too soon, as they are expected to become commercially available only sometime in 2011, yet the news show that steps into including the platform into other devices than mobile phones are made.
OESF was established in February for creating a variety of embedded products that would run under the Android platform. At the CEATEC event in Japan, the 25 companies that form the foundation intend to launch set-top boxes, VoIP, network and security, measurement and control, system core, application and services and marketing and education working groups.