Report: Samsung readying Android phone
The electronics giant is said to be working on a "full touch-screen phone" that will come to North America in the second quarter.
- 30 years experience at tech and consumer publications, print and online. Five years in the US Army as a translator (German and Polish).
The latest to line up with word of an entry into the Android phone sweepstakes: Samsung Electronics.
Korea IT News reports that the electronics giant plans to offer a phone based on Google's Android operating system in the second quarter of 2009. The device will be released in North America through Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA, according to the report.
"To this end," the report says, Samsung "has added 30 experts in Linux and Java to the task force team of its information and communications division."
T-Mobile was the first carrier to offer an Android-based phone, the G1, which went on sale earlier this fall.
The Samsung device is expected to be a "full touch-screen phone" and will include "the Google Map-based location information service, messenger G-Talk, the G-mail application and Google Search," according to Korea IT News.
Samsung is a member of Google's Open Handset Alliance.
Earlier this week, China's Huawei Technologies talked about its Android plans, saying that its smartphone would be ready in the third quarter.