smartphones

Samsung has confirmed plans to release Android phones, according to a recent story in Forbes. Dr. Won-Pyo Hong, executive vice president of global product strategy in the mobile communications division, told the magazine during the recent CTIA trade show in Las Vegas that the company will release several handsets using the Google-backed, open-source operating system.

The first of the devices will be launched in June outside the U.S. Hong confirmed that two other Android devices will be released in the U.S. during the second half of 2009.

Sprint and T-Mobile

In the U.S., the Samsung executive said, each of the phones will be different because of the needs of the carrier partners, each of whom will sell one model. The carriers, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile, are both members of the Open Handset Alliance, formed to promote Android.

T-Mobile sells the only major Android-based phone on the market, the G1, and there were reports this weekend that it is expanding its commitment to the mobile platform by developing a home phone and a small tablet computer, among other devices, that will be based on Android.

There have also been reports that computer maker Hewlett-Packard is looking at Android for possible use in a line of netbooks. In addition to the possible branching of Android into non-phone devices, the OS is also beginning to evolve into versions that are Android-based and Google-branded, and others that don’t emphasize Google.

Hong told Forbes that the Samsung Android phones will not be Google-centric, as T-Mobile’s G1 is, but Android-centric.

‘One of the Major Mobile Platforms’

Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, noted that, although Samsung had been saying for a while that it intended to release Android devices this year, there was disappointment when no announcement was made at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February.

There had been reports that Samsung would release its Android devices at that show, but company executives said they had never planned to do so. The Barcelona show ended up dampening the Android fervor a bit, as expectations had run high that such devices would steal the show, and Windows Mobile attracted much of the spotlight.

Greengart said he expects to see at least a dozen different Android-based handsets released from various manufacturers. Even though there is currently only one major device, Greengart said, the OS has already become “one of the major mobile platforms.”

Other Android devices should soon be appearing. For instance, the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei has announced that it will sell as many as three Android-based devices this year under the brand names of the carrier partners. HTC, manufacturer of the G1 from T-Mobile, is planning to release the tablet-styled HTC Magic with Vodafone in several European countries. Sony Ericsson and others have also announced they will release Android devices.

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