At least eighteen more Android based devices are expected to be in the market by the end of 2009, Andy Rubin from Google Inc. has been explaining the three levels of platform adoption options, open to handset manufacturers and carriers. While Android remains FREE to use and OEMs are not even required to tell Google about their implementations. That figure of eighteen phones are only those the company knows about, there are degrees of flexibility in how some of the platform’s flagship apps can be deployed.
The most basic implementation is obligation-free, with manufacturers at liberty to install Android on as many devices as they can do happily. However they may not distribute Apps by Google i.e. GMail, Google Calendar or any of the other popular Google applications. Next comes an implementation with strings attached, in which manufacturers will sign a distribution agreement with Google and are thus permitted to include Google’s Apps. Finally here comes what the search giant refers as The Google Experience, with Google branding on the handset and full of the Google apps and unrestricted access to the Android Market.
Rubin is aware of hitting the market by the end of this year, 12-14 of them fall into the second category and 5-6 into the third. Rubin expects US carriers will take longer to introduce Android devices, as they attempt to customize the platform; he declined to confirm which manufacturers Google knows are creating Android handsets.