Asus prepares its own Android phone
According to the Digitimes, Asus is planing an Android phone of their very own, to launch in the first half of next year. This bit of news leads Gadget Lab's Charlie Sorrel to evacuate his wishful thinking bladder into a rapidly expanding pool of prose:
This nugget leads us to some speculation. Android is a Linux-based operating system for mobile devices, supporting Wi-Fi, 3G and touch screens. Asus is planning to ship a touch screen PC early next year, and has shown a willingness to bundle Linux with its machines.Our spidey-sense is tingling, and it tells us that it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to imagine an Android based Eee PC, a little 3G-equipped Google Computer. And if the OS is doing some cellphone-style power management, this might even be the fix for the notoriously bad battery life found in most netbooks.
An interesting idea, Charlie, but Android isn't a quick hack away from running a full netbook. An Eee Phone? Sure: Asus has whored the brand enough. But my gut says any pairing Asus does between Android and Eee will either be meaningless branding or the quick hack of a tethering system between Eee netbooks and their Eee phones.
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Actually, I know for a fact that a certain rather large technology company is working on getting Android running on the ia86 platform (in particular they are using at least Eee PCs as a target device). I know at least one developer on this team. This company (to be unnamed, but they are a large presence in Portland where the team is partially based) is also a member of the OHA and has been working on this project since long before the 1.0 release of the platform.