14 DAY TRIAL // Although Samsung has announced only low-end and mid-end phones lately, thus appearing to be focusing on cheaper devices for 2009, now it seems that the Korean manufacturer has not forgotten about the smartphone market. In this context, the company announced that, in the second quarter of 2009, it would release a Google phone in North America.
Such a move has everyone pretty excited and it consolidates the rumors we've heard that, even though next year mobile sales will drop significantly, the smartphone business will still thrive. Considering this idea, it seems that Samsung has planned to create diversified operating system smartphones.
At first glance, this seems like a pretty good strategy for the giant manufacturer, but even if it turns out to be less successful than expected, such an event will be to users’ advantage since the competition between Symbian, Mac OS and Google will be even more atrocious.
To accomplish the goal set up in the given amount of time, the company has taken on 30 new Java and Linux developers in order to speed up the process. Also, the finished device will be on sale, at least at first, via Sprint and T-Mobile, which are also lending a hand to Samsung and making sure than each of them will legally have the right to distribute the handset.
A spokesperson declared on behalf of Samsung, concerning the Google phone, “We are accelerating the development process for Google phone in order to meet the specific need of local carriers. We will be able to release Google phone in the second quarter of the next year in the US market.”
Samsung has also revealed that the Google phone will base its design features on a full touchscreen mobile, probably the Omnia or the Instinct, and that it's very likely to include most of Google's services. For now, only the GPS-focused Google Maps app, G-Talk messenger, G-Mail and Google Search have been confirmed, but since the phone has been in development for over a year, when the company first put together the development group, other Google applications will probably be added.
In any case, should this Google smartphone be a success, mostly in terms of sales, then not only will we get the opportunity to enjoy a great device, but other companies will also have to come up with better and more cleverly-designed phones; the highest probability is that, in most cases, it will all be to users’ advantage one way or the other.