Andy Rubin, the man behind Google’s Android OS, has recently denied the rumors of Google building its own Android phone.
About ten days ago, The Street quoted analyst Ashok Kumar, who has reportedly talked with unnamed Google partners and said that a Google-branded Android phone is in the making.
Well, according to CNET, Andy Rubin declared the following: “We’re not making hardware. We’re enabling other people to build hardware.” So it looks like, at least for the time being, Google has absolutely no plans to build its own phone.
Rubin also mentioned that such a phone would only compete with Google’s customers. And speaking of Google’s customers, I’ve counted 13 Android phones that were officially announced until now:
- HTC Dream / T-Mobile G1
- HTC Magic / T-Mobile myTouch 3G
- HTC Hero
- HTC Tattoo
- Samsung i7500 Galaxy
- Samsung i5700 Spica
- Samsung Moment
- Samsung Behold II
- Motorola Cliq / Dext
- Motorola Droid
- LG GW620
- Acer Liquid A1
- Huawei T-Mobile Pulse
Many more Android phones will come later this year and in 2010 (including the Sony Ericsson Xperia X3 Rachael), so Android is likely to become hugely popular without the existence of a Googlephone anyway.
[via unwired view]
