Hello fellow AndroidCommunity members, welcome, and Happy New Year 2010! We are so excited for the new Android devices that will make their way into our hands this year. We also hope to have great news on all the upcoming gadgets at CES. It seems like the most exciting news happened until the end of 2009, but let’s start our AC highlights from the beginning of said year, shall we?
Let’s Begin with the First HTC Handsets Making Android History
One of the most important things that happened at the beginning of 2009 was the leaked info on HTC’s Android-powered Hero. Also, coder Luke Hutchison, put together a multitouch hack for the G1. Users of the G1 also received the RC-33 update, with support for Google’s Latitude and voice-controlled searching. Paid apps finally made it to the Android Market, and the second Android-based smartphone; the HTC Magic, was officially announced by HTC and Vodafone. The HTC Dream got a March 15th release date on Orange France, while Vodafone UK’s site had confirmed the HTC Magic launch during April 2009.
And who doesn’t remember when Vic Gundotra took to the stage to unveil GMail offline, but may have also inadvertently announced the T-Mobile G2/HTC Magic. This apparently became obvious when an HTC handset – the Magic – passed the FCC bearing T-Mobile USA branding. Not easy to forget were also the first shots of the HTC Hero in the wild, without the awful pink, as well as the official T-Mobile USA announcement of their second Android handset; the myTouch 3G. And while Chris was doing the unboxing video of the Vodafone HTC Magic, Rogers Wireless was making the announcement of the HTC Dream (aka T-Mobile G1) and the HTC Magic to the Canadian market on June 2nd.
By the end of May, Vincent was happily playing with a free Google IO 2009 HTC Android phone, check the unboxing video and pictures here. The very next day, Steven alerted us of many G1 owners getting the Android 1.5 (Cupcake) update for their devices. Then, out of the blue, a promo video for the HTC Hero appeared online. Latitude and Voice Search for Android Google Maps were upgraded, and Transit directions came along. A few days later, HTC was making news again, Chris was at a press event in London, where the company announced its third Android smartphone; the HTC Hero. T-Mobile didn’t want to be left out, so they announced a myTouch 3G media event for July 8th.
In August, the myTouch 3G was available at T-Mobile for $199.99 with a new 2-year contract. HTC also unveiled a low-cost entry-level Android handset called the Tattoo in September. Fast forward to October, and the news get juicier; the Sprint HTC Hero launches on Oct. 12th, for $179.99 with a 2-year contract and a $100 rebate. The HTC Tattoo gets unboxed & played with at SlashGear the next morning.
Other Phones and a Couple of HTCs Android Powered
Sony Ericsson’s phone, the XPERIA codenamed Rachael, appears on some “internal documents”, and just a few days later, shots of the slick Sony Ericsson Android interface leaked on youtube. In September, the Samsung i7500 Galaxy arrived to Europe via O2, and the LG Etna was caught at a Vodafone stand, and we later found out, that it was the LG GW620. Motorola UK confirmed the Motorola DEXT – Motorola CLIQ outside of the US – to go on sale through carrier Orange from early October, and through T-Mobile USA network in Q4 2009.
T-Mobile in the UK got the Android Huawei Pulse for prepay service, and the Acer A1 Android powered smartphone appeared for a while at retailer Expansys. Samsung also introduced an Android handset; the Behold II, with carrier T-Mobile, a leaked document from Sam’s reported on the DROID by Motorola to be ready by the holidays, and to top it all off, Android 1.6 went OTA to G1 and myTouch 3G users on T-Mobile.
Sprint gets another Android phone; the Samsung Moment, meanwhile the Motorola CLIQ gets a full SlashGear review, and an early build of Android 2.0 Eclair leaked, giving us a glance into the future. From Russia with love, the little brother of the Samsung Galaxy I7500; the Galaxy Spica gets announced. And the Android-based Acer Liquid A1 goes up for sale in the UK on December.
At the end of 2009 the world saw one of the hottest phones come to life, yes, the DROID by Motorola, sold by Big Red (Verizon), which came packed with Android 2.0. But that wasn’t the only Android handset that Verizon got, they also got the HTC Eris. The DROID went to Europe and change its name to be the MILESTONE, but it wasn’t able to use the Google Maps Navigation Beta update, since it was for the US only. Another hot Android phone that begun to caught our attention was the Sony Ericsson’s Rachel/XPERIA 10, only to be dethroned by the latest, hottest and baddest of the Android phones; the Google Nexus One. Which is still giving a lot to talk about, but we hope to get more info on this great handset in a couple of days.
Well folks, there you have it, yes, there were other Android devices during the year 2009, but we tried to keep it just on the smartphone side, since that’s the main subject with Google’s free OS. Anyway, one of the most sought after MIDs; the Camangi, ended up as a close fail in the eyes of some of its buyers. So, fellow AC members, what were your Android highlights for 2009? Let us know in the comments area.
