Open Sauce Software
Tasty titbits from people using Linux and other open source software in business.
Tuesday 11 November 2008, 6:00 PM
Open source Android opens Huawei eyes
Huawei's announcement of plans for an Android phone are another endorsement for open source on handsets. And it's also an unusual one.
It's tempting to over-analyse this, as the actual announcement was quite a passing mention by the handset division's marketing chief, given through an interpreter to four UK journalists on a visit to the company's Shenzhen headquarters.
Huawei will be launching phones based on Android and Symbian early in 2009, James Chen told us. He didn't give many details of what or when, but the promise of smartphones - and open source ones - is an interesting one from this company.
Huawei Terminal, the division which makes phones, is self-effacing. It makes what the operator requires, and leaves the labelling to the operator. This is a contrast to the only actual Android vendor so far, HTC, which has built quite a name for itself, supplies phones to operators and also sells phones itself.
Huawei has so far dealt with "featurephones", the not-so-dumb devices which have a camera and email, but no open, extendable platform. It makes a Windows Mobile smartphone, but now plans two more operating systems.
Significantly, Chen said Huawei was keen on open source as a means to increase customisation in its phones, something that Windows Mobile does not allow.
There are details unexplored here - how does the requirement for sharing source code get met, in a white label phone? - but If Android is going to take over significant amounts of the phone market, and not a nerdy subsector, it's this sort of vendor it needs to get on board.
It's tempting to over-analyse this, as the actual announcement was quite a passing mention by the handset division's marketing chief, given through an interpreter to four UK journalists on a visit to the company's Shenzhen headquarters.
Huawei will be launching phones based on Android and Symbian early in 2009, James Chen told us. He didn't give many details of what or when, but the promise of smartphones - and open source ones - is an interesting one from this company.
Huawei Terminal, the division which makes phones, is self-effacing. It makes what the operator requires, and leaves the labelling to the operator. This is a contrast to the only actual Android vendor so far, HTC, which has built quite a name for itself, supplies phones to operators and also sells phones itself.
Huawei has so far dealt with "featurephones", the not-so-dumb devices which have a camera and email, but no open, extendable platform. It makes a Windows Mobile smartphone, but now plans two more operating systems.
Significantly, Chen said Huawei was keen on open source as a means to increase customisation in its phones, something that Windows Mobile does not allow.
There are details unexplored here - how does the requirement for sharing source code get met, in a white label phone? - but If Android is going to take over significant amounts of the phone market, and not a nerdy subsector, it's this sort of vendor it needs to get on board.
PreviousComments on this post
I was interested in this story, so I did a little digging myself. Here is part of the statement I managed to get out of Huawei:
"Huawei plans to introduce customized smartphones based on Symbian and other open source operating systems in the first half of 2009, although the exact launch date still under discussion with operators."
So there you have it: Android and Symbian phones from Huawei next year. They are due to join the Open Handset Alliance, too.
