LIVE: Google, Verizon to Develop Android Handsets, Services
Posted on October 6, 2009 |
Google and Verizon, often at odds in the past, this morning announced a deal to co-develop handsets and other services using Google's Android operating software. (Full release is below.)
In the next few weeks, Verizon will introduce Android-based handsets. Whether those handsets will come anywhere close to the utility and, let's face it, sexiness of the iPhone remains to be seen, but if Verizon wants to get some of those iPhone lovers who now reluctantly use AT&T because that's the only choice (in the U.S.), they'll need to come closer than most Android phones have so far. For Google, though, getting Verizon, the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., on board no doubt will give a boost to Android, which has been seen as slow to take off.
The conference call with Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam is now underway. Cutting through the marketing-speak, here are the highlights:
