When is AT&T planning on adding Android phones?

[Dan the man]

I have had AT&T for almost 2 years, and my contract expires in April. However, with new lineups from Sprint and Verizon both including Android phones (and Verizon having the best network in the US) I am considering switching. We have been with AT&T for awhile now, but I am really wanting an android phone or a Blackberry Storm 2.

[Matt]

I think sometime before the world ends

[Rashbis]

Hey Joe,


Engadget Mobile today published excerpts of an unusually action-packed AT&T slide deck today, showing a dozen potential new devices for the Big Blue network.

One thing to understand as you pace through the deck is that these devices may never show up on store shelves; as Engadget Mobile editor-in-chief Chris Ziegler pointed out on Twitter, "only sure things are death and taxes." Many phones enter carrier approval processes; fewer make it out the other end.

One thing to keep an eye on is the "LE Date" field on Engadget's slides. That's the Lab Entry date - the date the device enters AT&T's labrinthine carrier approval process, a black hole from which some phones never return. Some of the devices Engadget shows - most notably the "Palm Eos," the rumored next Palm WebOS phone - haven't even entered the lab yet.

By far the most intriguing story, though, is told on the slide for the HTC Lancaster, which might be AT&T's first Android phone. I say "might," because of the note on the slide: "Initial Lab Entry dates were based on Google Mobile Services (GMS) UI. AT&T Standard UI has been requested, which puts schedule in question."

This dovetails with what AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega said about Android in April - that he wants to customize Android devices so they no longer look like Google phones.

"We in fact will be able to take the Android open-source code and put our own apps and features on an Android device," he said. "They're going to open it up and allow us to be able to customize what an Android device looks like to our customers."

When I've talked to carriers and manufacturers, they've been excited about Android as a replacement for higher end feature phones, not necessarily as another smart phone player. We're talking about devices like the Samsung Impression, which offer messaging and some Web browsing, but not a fully open mobile experience.

As I said back in 2007, Android isn't an end-to-end open mobile experience; it's an OS that carriers and manufacturers are free to alter or lock down however they like. Perhaps a conflict between carriers, manufacturers and Google is one of the things that has held up the release of more Android phones.

At Android's launch in 2007, Google CEO Eric Schmidt expressed disbelief that his OS would be used to create locked-down devices - but he's said that it's possible. And insiders I've spoken to have said that one of Android's growing pains has been the process of Google figuring out how much control they want to exert over the platform.

We've seen the first, rather innocuous carrier alterations in the new HTC Android phones for Rogers Wireless; by adding Microsoft Exchange support, Rogers forfeited the Google logo. It'll be very interesting to see what truly aggressive carrier customization does to the Android platform.

There has been a long period of rumours regarding Google’s own handset and people were wandering if it still comes or not. The answer is affirmative, Google’s self-developed phone, Android-based, will exist, but it would be built by a third party, probably Samsung or LG, and not the initially preferred HTC.

The phone would carry Google’s branding exclusively and is designed according to Google’s preferences and instructions only.

Early 2010 is the final proposed release date, which means the phone is already delayed but, in exchange, will receive massive marketing in January next year. The device would not be one of Google’s developer phones, such as the Ion or the Dev Phone 1. Both of them were existing designs but with but with the only change of being unrestricted Android installations.

Google has publicly denied these rumours by saying it would not compete with its hardware partners. It also said that its influence on Android phones’ design, such as the T-Mobile G1, was rather detrimental than useful. There were many rumours in the past saying that Google had heavily influenced the hardware design of Motorola’s Droid.

As a matter of fact, the Android phone of Google would pit this latter more directly against Apple because it would have its own mobile operating system and its own hardware too. Not to mention the conflict of interest generated by features like Google Maps Navigation, which might get a preferential treatment compared to other similar applications.

A third phone, the rumoured HTC Dragon, has already been tested at Google for several weeks and should be ready for selling very soon. Many people expect it to be a spiritual relative of the Windows Mobile-based HD2 of HTC and to sport a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and a large touchscreen. As there have been many rumours about new Android phones in Verizon’s network in the next weeks, one of these devices could be the Dragon.

[Edward N.]

Due to the fact that AT&T has an exclusive contract with Apple for the iPhone, I am 99% sure that it's in their contract not to have Android.