Industry analyst Tero Kuittinen of MKM Partners is reporting that that AT&T has nixed plans to bring on Motorola's
Sawgrass and
Heron later this year as part of its first volley of Android devices because the pair looked "dated." Judging from the shots we have of the Heron, we can't say we necessarily agree -- and that's not the only hole in the story. We broke the news on these two devices earlier this year; the beefier of the two, the Heron, was pictured running Windows Mobile but it was indicated in the slide deck we had that it'd be ported to Android prior to release. Kuittinen indicates that the phones were prototyped with WinMo but would be moved to Android, so everything checks out so far. Here's the problem, though: the Sawgrass ended up becoming the
Karma, a phone that is very much released and available on AT&T today -- so there goes the "dated" argument. What's more, it doesn't run Windows Mobile and it never has, even back when it was being pitched in an internal meeting the better part of a year ago. It's possible the dude just has his codenames mixed up here and Moto really had proposed two Android-powered sets to AT&T all along -- and any way you slice it, the
Morrison and the
Sholes for T-Mobile and Verizon respectively are still the odds-on favorites to be the first Moto Android sets out of the door anyhow. As for AT&T's current Android strategy, well, that remains to be seen.
[Via
FierceWireless]
posted August 27th 2009 10:08PM
I heard from my AT&T rep at work that Apple told AT&T it can't bring on any Android devices while it has exclusivity on the iPhone.
This isn't true.
Hearsay? or simple denial? Which one is correct?! Two men enter one man leaves! THUNDERDOME!
We are working on it. Some of it has to do with the recent iPhone price drop. We should have an Android device by the holidays.
Does the whole ATT/Apple vs Google spat over apps have anything to do with ATT putting the brakes on their first rumored Android phones?
(Not that they'd ever admit it publicly or share that type of info with their lower level employees)
Just curious.
I wouldn't really be surprised if Apple did this. Its not unheard of that they rule with an iron fist. Although when Intel tells computer manufacturers that they wont look kindly on them using AMD processors in their line up there are some anti-trust cases thrown at Intel. But when Apple does it people look the other way.
I'm surprised with how people look at Apple and love them even tho they get shit on by Apple. I mean their iPhone 3GS' overheat and Apple says its cus the customers left their phones in cars that were too hot and not in the recommended running environment. Then they shoot down Google Voice because it provides features that are already in the iPhone, but how bout some of the features that come with GV that aren't built in? Then now they have exploding batteries in their phones, and they say the customers are breaking their own screens. How many excuses can people take from Apple before they grow wise? Or am I just blinded by my distrust of Apple?
As a recently let go employee of google... Yes there is a very specific apfgle related reason that AT&T has not released an android powered handset... That's all I'm saying
Would it be so hard for any of the handset manufacturers cranking out Android devices to add the 850mhz 3G band? It seems like there is some purposeful feature reduction when Toshiba or HTC comes out with a handset with everything BUT 850mhz.
AT&T go and get me an HTC Hero and make that your Android phone! C'mon what are you waiting for? *clap clap*
As long as the pictured phone is released. The keyboard looks absolutely heavenly and the design of the phone is certainly on point.