After one round of delay rumors, we’ve now had the second. On Thursday, Barrons ran an article quoting analyst Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research, who has suggested that the launch of Android handsets would be delayed to Q1 2009 from Q4 this year. One of the key hardware partners, HTC, is according to Chowdhry “having structural problems to incorporate Google’s demanded feature set”, while Google “is not able to attract enough developers because toolkits offered by Microsoft, Apple, RIM and Nokia’s Symbian software group have sucked up software developers’ attention.”
If HTC really is wavering in their GPhone determination, they have a funny way of showing it. The company got in touch with Android Community to set the record straight, and reiterate – as Google themselves did back in June – that Chowdhry’s information is incorrect and that HTC are still on track for a Q4 launch.
Developers, far from lacking interest in Android, are currently crying out for more attention from Google to help them code for the platform. Handsets certainly won’t be the limiting factor for Android’s success; Google’s capacity for assisting the developer community might.
