Yes, the delayed Nuvifone is still scheduled to come out in the first half of 2009. There's no carrier or price announcement yet—Garmin says they are in active negotiations with GSM carriers in North America (so, AT&T and T-Mobile) and in Europe—but now it will be named the Garmin-Asus Nuvifone G60, and will be the first in a line of Garmin-Asus smartphones. It will be on display and ready for groping at next month's Mobile World Congress (formerly known as 3GSM).

The very next smartphone Garmin-Asus plans to launch will not be an Android phone, negating the "Eee Phone" talk recently coming out of the Asus camp. Rather, it will be a phone running another "major platform." I am guessing that means Windows Mobile, but there's no telling which version, 6.1, 6.5 or 7. It will be revealed at Mobile World Congress (formerly known as 3GSM) next month.

Regarding Android, Garmin-Asus is "committed to building" a phone that runs it, as both companies are members of Google's Open Handset Alliance. Garmin rumors have suggested the phone may possibly even come out in 2009. But according to our current reporting, it's just not next.

The new brand will represent a strategic alliance covering all smartphone business for both Garmin and Asus. It won't be a separate new company, like Sony Ericsson, but any smartphone that comes out from either company will be co-branded and bear the Nuvifone name. This deal seems like it leverages the manufacturing core and global reach of Asus with Garmin's skill at developing sturdy portable products with smart user interfaces. Also, the branding is limited. Anything not relating to smartphones is "business as usual" for the two companies.

It also makes it clear that Garmin is done toeing the water of the cellphone business, and is ready to jump in, holding the hand of Asus. The only casualty here is probably going to be the G60. If it were Garmin's only offering, maybe people who love Garmin would go for it, but now, even those Garmin lovers know that better cooler things are coming—with choices from Windows Mobile and Android. Here's hoping the G60 is cheap and village-idiot simple. [Garmin-Asus]

Update: Here's the official press release:

Garmin® and ASUS® to Create Garmin-Asus Line of Co–branded LBS-centric Mobile Phones

Cayman Islands and Taipei, Taiwan/February 4, 2009/Business Wire — Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) and ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (TAIEX: 2357) today announced a strategic alliance that will leverage the companies’ navigation and mobile telephony expertise to design, manufacture and distribute co-branded location-centric mobile phones. Garmin and ASUS have already begun joint development on a diverse mobile phone product line, which will be known as the Garmin-Asus nüvifone™ series. The companies expect to bring to market several Garmin-Asus nüvifone models in 2009, and a new Garmin-Asus nüvifone model will be announced at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, February 16-19, 2009.

“We believe that converged devices are an emerging opportunity,” said Dr. Min Kao, chairman and CEO of Garmin Ltd. “This alliance is advantageous to both companies because it allows us to combine our resources and establish a strong foundation from which we will innovate and introduce the world to the benefits of LBS-centric mobile phones. We’ve been working with ASUS for over one year on the initial nüvifone that was announced in 2008 on the basis of an ODM relationship. Learning from this experience, we concluded that by leveraging and combining our respective industry-leading areas of expertise at a higher level, we will be able not only to significantly expand our product line, but also to shorten our product development time. We believe that through this strategic alliance we are uniquely positioned to deliver the world’s best integrated and most compelling GPS-enabled mobile devices.”

“This alliance allows ASUS and Garmin to seamlessly combine the strengths of both companies to offer market leading mobile phone solutions that are of the best design and highest quality. ASUS and Garmin both believe strongly in the continuous investment of R&D resources to unfailingly provide leading-edge innovations to people and businesses,” said Jonney Shih, CEO of ASUSTeK Computer Inc. “Through this alliance, our companies will continue to develop innovations that simplify life. Our technologies should accommodate our customers, not the other way around. We believe all devices should perform and communicate seamlessly not just anytime and anyplace, but in real time, in real places, and we’re confident the nüvifone series will meet this objective.”

All Garmin-Asus nüvifone devices will continue the product vision of the original nüvifone and will be LBS-centric devices that seamlessly connect, communicate and navigate. The original Garmin nüvifone that was announced in 2008 will be re-branded as the Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60. The Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60 is expected to be delivered in the first half of 2009, and additional information about the Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60 will be released at the Mobile World Congress trade show.

LBS functionality is core to the Garmin-Asus nüvifone series, which will offer the same
turn-by-turn, voice-prompted navigation features found on high-end Garmin portable navigation devices (PND). It has preloaded maps and millions of points of interest that allow drivers to quickly find a specific street address, establishment’s name or search for a destination by category. In addition, the nüvifone includes quick access to online points of interest through internet enabled local search. The nüvifone harnesses the power of the worldwide web and information about local merchants and attractions is continually updated. The nüvifone also features Ciao!™, a social networking application that bridges the gap between multiple location based social networks and integrates them seamlessly into one device.

The Garmin-Asus alliance was disclosed during a press conference in Taiwan on February 4, 2009. Analysts or journalists unable to attend the Garmin-Asus announcement in Taiwan are invited to participate in a webcast or via phone on February 4, 2009, at 11:00 am EST
(10:00 am CST). Webcast details are available at www.GarminAsus.com/pressroom.

Garmin-Asus nüvifone models will be on display at the Garmin-Asus booth at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, February 16-19, 2009 (7C37, hall 7). Journalists should contact the Garmin or Asus media contacts to arrange a live demonstration or interviews. Additional information is available at www.GarminAsus.com.

About Garmin and ASUS
Garmin is the global leader in satellite navigation, and has sold more than 43 million devices. Currently celebrating its 20th anniversary, Garmin has pioneered navigation and communication devices that enrich people’s lives. Garmin’s market breadth in the GPS industry is second to none having developed innovative products and established market leadership position in each of the markets it serves, including automotive, aviation, marine, fitness, outdoor recreation and wireless applications. Garmin achieved the worldwide number one spot for mobile navigation devices in 2007 by more than doubling its shipments on 2006 and increasing its market share. According to research conducted by Canalys, a leading independent technology market analyst firm, in the third quarter of 2008 Garmin held 35 percent of the worldwide PND market with an approximately 50 percent share in the U.S. and a 20 percent share in Europe.

Garmin has been on the leading edge of mobile phone navigation having launched several products into the mobile market including Garmin Mobile off-board navigation and Garmin Mobile XT, an on-board navigation solution. First announced in 2005, Garmin Mobile off-board navigation was the first server-based navigation application to visually depict and constantly update the user’s position on a detailed moving map. These navigation applications include access to dynamic, location-relevant content like traffic reports, fuel prices, flight status and weather information. Garmin’s on-board and off-board navigation solutions have been adopted by numerous mobile phone manufacturers and network operators, and are currently available on over 500 different phone models.

ASUS is a technology leader in the IT industry and offers everything from PC components to complete solutions including notebooks, desktops, smart phones, PDAs, broadband communications products, LCD monitors and wireless applications. ASUS is recognized worldwide for the Eee PC™, an ultramobile PC noted for its combination of light weight and ease of use. In 2007, one in three desktop PCs sold was powered by an ASUS motherboard; and ASUS has been the fastest growing notebook brand for the past eight consecutive quarters, ranking fifth in the world in Q3 2008. The company's 2008 revenues reached $8.2 billion (U.S. dollars). Through its unyielding commitment to innovation and quality, ASUS has won numerous international awards. ASUS has been ranked amongst BusinessWeek’s InfoTech 100 for 11 consecutive years, placing ninth in 2008. ASUS has also achieved the number one title in the annual league table of Taiwan Top 10 Global Brands IT Hardware category with a brand value of $1.324 billion (U.S. dollars).

ASUS is a rising contender in the design, manufacture and distribution of mobile phones, and has exclusive intellectual property rights in 3G core technologies. These 3G technologies are paving the way for 4G in the near future. With over 800 employees devoted to R&D and business development for smart phones, ASUS has successfully launched phones in 20 countries with major operators such as Vodafone, O2, Orange and TIM. ASUS’ telecom industry footprint has grown significantly since the company introduced its first PDA in 2001 and mobile phone in 2004. Today, ASUS is recognized as one of the top three Windows Mobile brands in Russia and Eastern Europe. With stylish facades and excellent user interfaces, ASUS phones have passed strict design criteria to win the Japanese G-Mark Design and German iF Awards — accolades that position ASUS as a leader in mobile phone design.

Garmin is a registered trademark, and Ciao! and nüvifone are trademarks, of Garmin Ltd. ASUS is a registered trademark and Eee PC is a trademark of ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

The OPhone is roughly 1mm bigger than the original iPhone in all dimensions, measuring in at 115.84x61.57x12.03mm. Besides the volume rocker, the OPhone also has its microSD slot on the left side. According to the China bloggers, it'll support microSD cards of up to 16GB.

The phone from the other side. This is supposed to be a dedicated camera button, which I guess makes the OPhone more comfortable to take landscape photos with.

Here's the butt of all three phones. As you can see, the OPhone's placed its headphone jack on its bottom. Also residing down there is the microUSB slot for charging and PC synchronizing. I wonder if that placement choice will render it incompatible with certain speaker docking systems.

On the backside is a removable battery, as well as a flash for the 5MP camera— two things it has on the iPhone. Assuming everything works like it's supposed to, this will be a serious contender to the iPhone and other smartphones. Guess we'll see Q1 next year. Merry Christmas from here in Asia! [Sina Blog]

Update 12:13PM: Eric at Information Week called up Garmin US for their comment, and apparently they were just as surprised as we are at the DigiTimes's report, saying:

Garmin media relations manager, Ted Gartner, said that, "There were many inaccuracies reported by the DigiTimes." He also said that Garmin is working on a statement to debunk most of the "facts" reported by DigiTimes.

Not an outright denial, but we'll stay tuned for the aforementioned statement.

Update 1:28PM: Annnd, here it is:

Garmin Disputes DigiTimes Report

CAYMAN ISLANDS—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation, is disputing a Monday, December 22 report in the DigiTimes trade publication entitled, “Garmin expects to ship 18 million GPS PNDs in 2008.” The story contains a number of inaccuracies in both sales figures and product rollout schedules.

“Black Friday sales from our customers were what we expected and gross margins remain relatively strong,” said Kevin Rauckman, Garmin’s CFO and treasurer. “However, the December sales environment is weaker, which we attribute to our retail customers’ desire to exit the year with lower levels of inventory.”

As is customary, Garmin will update investors during its fourth quarter 2008 earnings call, scheduled for February 25, 2009.

Yep, no word at all about the Android phones specifically. The lack of a denial, plus the fact they're in the alliance means there's still a possibility.

Now, your regularly scheduled news pre-update:

You may recall that Garmin was one of the more interesting new members into the Open Handset Alliance, the fraternity of Android-friendly companies that just recently accepted a few new pledges. Whether these phones will have a worldwide release or stick to Asia only, as many of the most recent Android announcements have, remains to be seen. [DigiTimes]

The new members are:

AKM Semiconductor Inc., ARM, ASUSTek Computer Inc., Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International Inc., Huawei Technologies, Omron Software Co. Ltd, Softbank Mobile Corporation, Sony Ericsson, Teleca AB, Toshiba Corporation and Vodafone.

Joining the founding members (minus the minor players here):

* China Mobile
* KDDI Corporation
* NTT DoCoMo
* Sprint Nextel
* T-Mobile
* Telecom Italia
* Telefónica
* Ascender Corporation
* eBay
* Google
* Broadcom Corporation
* Intel Corporation
* Nvidia Corporation
* Qualcomm
* Synaptics
* Texas Instruments
* HTC
* LG
* Motorola
* Samsung Electronics

And a selection of the big dogs still missing (with most likely to stay that way) are:

• Nokia
• AT&T
• Apple
• Microsoft
• RIM
• Verizon
• Palm

While membership in the OHA can mean any number of things (from simply contributing in some way to the Android source code to producing an actual Android device), it's interesting to see a broader range of companies joining up. Sony Ericsson is a big score, hardware wise, and Garmin is the first navigation company to be a member—I could see an Android-powered nav device, if executed correctly and backed by a major player, filling the niche that Dash started to explore. And let's not forget the eternally delayed Nuvifone—Android is perfectly suited to something like that. Why would Garmin build its own smartphone OS from scratch when it could simply modify an open source foundation that's already out there, and free?

[Full Press Release]

Hop-on Will Launch Its Google Android Alliance Phone at 2009 International CES

Last update: 9:40 a.m. EDT Oct. 24, 2008
IRVINE, Calif., Oct 24, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ — Hop-on (Pink Sheets: HPNN) will be launching its new open "Android Platform" device at the Consumer Electronic Show, in Las Vegas January 2009. This phone will be sold for under $200.
The Open Handset Alliance was established in November 2007, with 34 members including mobile handset makers, application developers, some mobile carriers, chip makers, and led by Google. Nokia, AT&T and Verizon Wireless are not members of the Alliance. Android, the flagship software of the Alliance, is based on an open source license and will compete against other mobile platforms developed independently for their particular handsets, now with the open platform Hop-on will reap the benefits of the source code.
The Alliance shares a common goal of fostering innovation on mobile devices and giving consumers a far better user experience than much of what is available on today's mobile platforms. By providing developers a new level of openness that enables them to work more collaboratively, Android will accelerate the pace at which new and compelling mobile services are made available to consumers.
Peter Michaels stated, "Hop-on is committed in bringing the latest technology to the market, the Android open platform makes Hop-on competitive in the high end mobile phone market. This will create market value for our shareholders."
Hop-on (HPNN-Pink Sheets) develops and markets wireless phones and accessories for emerging market and other domestic carriers and is best known for developing the world's first disposable cell phone. Currently, Hop-on is expanding into value-added services, like mobile gambling and SMS wagering. Hop-on's exclusive software will allow users to stream live interactive feed from legal jurisdictions to play poker, blackjack, roulette and baccarat on personal cell phones.
For more information, visit http://www.Hop-on.com.

Google and the Open Handset Alliance Announce Android Open Source Availability

Today, Google and the Open Handset Alliance announced the availability of the Android platform source code to everyone, for free, under the new Android Open Source Project. This represents the first truly open and fully featured mobile platform which will enable people to create a mobile device without restrictions, build applications that run on Android powered devices, and contribute to the core platform.

As an open source project, anyone can contribute to Android and influence its direction. It means that anyone can download, build, and run the code needed to create a complete mobile device. With an open source platform, developers, OEMs, carriers and code contributors are given the opportunity to build faster, cheaper and more innovative devices and services.

Android is a complete, end-to-end software platform that can be adapted to work on any number of hardware configurations. Having an open source mobile platform will dramatically reduce the time and resources required to bring mobile devices to market. Handset manufactures can access a complete, full featured mobile stack without any barriers and get a head-start in creating as contemporary a device that they want to build. Developers for the first time can contribute code, with a full set APIs that allows the platform to host applications written by third-party developers and carriers can offer faster, cheaper and more innovative devices and services.

"Open source allows everyone and anyone equal access to the ideas and innovation that can make good products great," said Andy Rubin, senior director of mobile platforms, Google. "An open sourced mobile platform, that's constantly being improved upon by the community and is available for everyone to use, speeds innovation, is an engine of economic opportunity and provides a better mobile experience for users.

With the availability of Android to the open source community, consumers will start to see more applications like location-based travel tools, games and social networking offerings available to them directly; cheaper and faster phones at lower costs; and a better mobile web experience through 3G networks with richer screens.

The code can be found under the Android Open Source Project, the open source initiative for Android now available at source.android.com.

For more information around the Android Open Source Project visit, source.android.com.

When the T-Mobile G1 was shown off in NYC last week, it didn't have the gusto of a Stevenote. There was no "boom!"—no "one more thing!" And as a result, many (including us) felt a bit underwhelmed, and were quick to interpret the device's inconsistent GUI as an indicator that the lack of attention to detail would doom it.

But allow me to remind all of those getting their naysay on this early in the game that we've seen only a fraction of what the G1 can and will be able to do with the open-source Android OS. And when Google's mobile machine is finally humming at full power—with an army of coders cranking out add-ons for the Market, today's skeptics—including some of us—are going to have to eat crow. It's not about pretty icons, Apple fanboys, and its not about business use, Windows Mobile Nerds: its about giving people the true tools to build whatever they want without lame App Store limitations and OS handcuffs. It's about giving phone makers shackled to Symbian and Microsoft's phone OS the chance to build with something different and better and free. And who's going to complain about that?

Back to Apple for a minute: The iPhone has brainwashed us into thinking everything that's revolutionary and exciting in the gadget world needs to be a sex object. Now, I enjoy an Apple hardware brainfuck as much as the next, but a phone is never a better phone because of hardware alone, and Google knows this too. And it will be entering the market at a time when iPhone’s software strategy is starting to show wobbly legs. If you’ve been reading our weekly app roundups, you’ve probably noticed the story shifting away from clever developers doing cool things no one previously thought possible to more about what Apple won't let iPhone developers and users do with their phones. As a result, we’ve seen tons of variety, but not a lot of depth. There are a ton of clever calculator apps of various kinds. There are a ton of games, a ton of flashlights. But in the groundbreaking and unexpected functionality department, all anyone can hear lately is crickets. And Apple's lawyers trying to get the crickets to sign an NDA.

No one else makes a legitimate phone OS with all this support that can be tweaked down to the very roots. For one thing, I'm excited to be able to download an entirely different version of all of Android’s core applications if I don't like the default 1.0 versions—and that’s every app, everything from the dialer to the contacts manager—something that's technically possible in WinMo but often comes off more as an awkward re-skinning and not a top-down integration. I'm excited to add system-level features to my phone for free, and not just apps that are only allowed to bounce around on the surface. These are the benefits that an open platform will allow developers to provide to Android users, and the benefits that Google hopes all mobile phone customers will come to expect from their phones as a result.

This is all banking on the platform being successful, of course, which is obviously up in the air this early on. But would Google mount such a huge undertaking as Android if they were only expecting to be a different flavor of Windows Mobile? That seems hard to believe.

Everyone who gave the G1 a quick run-through last week was in reality testing a product still in beta. Because as we’ve said repeatedly, Android is now in the hands of its developers (from within Google itself as well as third-parties), who will have unprecedented access to all parts of a mobile phone and a centralized distribution network (Android Market) in order to do things that have only been teased until now. It’s all banking on the Market, and its ability to attract grade-A content that will provide even novice cellphone users with many opportunities to greatly customize their phones.

To do this Android will need one thing: critical mass, on both the developer and consumer side, in that order—with each reinforcing the other. Its pre-release may be sold-out, but on October 22 there probably won't be campers and local news crews stretched for miles outside of the T-Mobile store. That's because Google knows who they need to go after first—the developers. The geek community. It wasn't a coincidence that at launch, Sergey Brin came on stage on Rollerblades bragging about his accelerometer phone-toss app that he wrote himself. This first release is all about getting developers into Android, and giving them a similar open dev environment that Larry and Sergey will be the first to tell you they couldn't have built Google without. The iPhone didn't get that until version 2.0, many firmware releases later—and it's still not nearly as open as Android will be. (The iPhone also couldn't reliably hold a call without dropping for many until version 2.1, but that's besides the point.)

Open source has failed many times before, critics will say. Here's why Android will not fail in this regard: governance. Google told us that priority number one right now with Android is setting the standards by which the project will operate—what makes a device Android 1.0 compatible, how often full system upgrades will be offered, and the like. One thing that's fairly evident, though, is that an upgrade path will have to be fairly regimented (closer to Ubuntu’s strict twice-yearly schedule, rather than the “release whenever we feel like it” model found in other smaller projects) in order to keep all of the members of the huge Open Handset Alliance all on the same page. There will be no folks still waiting for their carrier to release Windows Mobile 6.1, years after it was made available. Android will not and cannot operate like this—to keep the Market thriving, all of the developers and users will need to be on the same (regular) release schedule. So, while they're taking care of the problems of being open source, they're also taking care of the same problems that a paid platform like Windows Mobile has.

Google has their eyes on the long haul with Android. Which is why reactions to a somewhat scattered UI in the very first implementation is not something they're worried about too much. This is a platform about further reducing the mobile carriers to raw pipes of data, and giving full control to the consumer. It’s about creating a critical-mass open-source ecosystem. And even if they fail to sell a ton of handsets, they've already put pressure on all the carriers and phone makers by the fact that they've created a free alternative that does not have to win to impact the players in this industry.

Of course, all of these arguments can be debated, but there's one thing that no no one can argue with: You don't take Google lightly.

Well, the HTC handset is around five inches long and 3 inches wide with a keypad that either slides or swivels out to make emailing, note-taking and writing Web addresses easy. The Internet is navigated via controls below the screen. So, that's just like a generic HTC phone, then.

The source of the current leak, described as "a person close to the situation" (ha!) claims that the handset will be available around the end of the year, although HTC is staying schtumm on the matter. "We cannot comment on this product," their rep said.

HTC will be facing competition from Samsung. The Korean electronics giant is, apparently, wetting its knickers to get its Google phone out before that of HTC. [Yahoo!]

For better, for worse or for Google, it sent the formerly locked-tight mobile-phone industry into an open-access hysteria. True, Android and the Open Handset Alliance are still (mostly) pretty logos and promises on paper. But for a bunch of talk, it's lead to some very real action, like helping nudge Verizon out of its ugly, red-walled garden. All this gesturing might actually change the industry.

Android aside, we can really give Google props for helping to break the mobile industry via its hard fight for open-access provisions in the 700MHz spectrum auction. The provisions themselves could change the game for all telecoms, and Google doesn't even need to win!

If anyone thought Google was approaching the limits of its growth earlier in the year, Wall Street proved 'em wrong when gPhone hype pushed its stock past the $700-per-share mark, making it the fifth most valuable company in America. It's comfortably resting now at the hype-free level of about $670, over $550 more than the initial price of around $120. (At the time, many investors say that was too high.)

Google kept up the "don't be evil" motto by pumping lots of money into green energy and green research. Maybe this is because they believe in a better tomorrow, but maybe it's just to power their Matrix-like server farms without resorting to turning runaway Microsoft employees into living batteries.

On the Google application front, its office suite is still no Office-killer, and we still have some kinks we wish could be worked out of the Reader, but Google did make our lives easier in a couple ways, like by dropping the invite requirement to Gmail, adding IMAP support and getting even more iPhone-friendly. Yay. And, just the other day, it threw down with Wikipedia by launching its latest collect-all-knowledge component, Knol, which'll pay contributors—with ads. (Surprise.)

Owning YouTube kinda caught up to Google, and we're kinda sore on that front—it got sued by Viacom, bitched at by other media companies and then had to implement a content-filtering system. But possibly even more egregious was its addition of overlay ads.

Now for even less palatable stuff: Google knows pretty much everything about you and everyone you've ever loved and that probably won't ever change, even if it is trying to be a little less creepy. For instance, Google will still have all the info you think you're erasing from Ask.com. And, it still plays nice with ethically dubious—to be generous—Chinese censorship regulations to ensure its grip on a chunk of the massive and growing market over there, which doesn't exactly line up with the "don't be evil" screed. Even Sergey thinks so.

And the ads. It's much pretty much a given the catch on any Google goodness is that there'll be some sort of advertising wedged in there—true, nothing worth paying for is totally free, and Google doesn't appear game for charging monthly fees for every little service, like Microsoft and Yahoo! now do. But Google going mobile means ads becoming an increasingly unavoidable part of your mobile life— AdSense for Mobile is all fired up. It seems the lovely mobile industry freedom Google's fighting for isn't free. It costs a buck-oh-five—or a contextual spot.

Final grade: B But we think this grade is slippery: next year, Google will either be A+ or D. What Google is doing is either a massive greed-motivated build-up or a series of initiatives intended to change the tech business (and our world) for the better. In two semesters, we think we'll know if either is true—or if both are.

We talked to AT&T Wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega shortly after the Android announcement was made and asked them whether they would join the Handset Alliance. Their answer that their networks were open, and people are free to use any handset on their network because you can just plop a SIM in and go. We decided to pass on relaying this info to you, since you didn't need to hear something you already knew. So no, AT&T didn't just fling their doors wide open; it's just as open with handsets as its always been, but everything else remains the same, for better and worse. [USA Today]

McAdam dismisses the idea that being a "founding" member of the OHA would have been anything more than a press-release opportunity for the carrier. Once the dev kit went out, though, he says his engineers were impressed.

"Clearly the Android system gives a lot of developers the opportunity to develop applications for a wide range of handsets."

The result has been what we have reported over the past week: Verizon declared its network open to all phones and devices that share its network technology, following an easy security and functionality verification process. Furthermore, Verizon will migrate to the 4G standard co-developed in Europe by its parent company Vodafone, Nokia and the 3GPP, a standard that would be in line with much of the world's wireless data network.

Though this could be showboating for the FCC in the period leading up to the 700MHz spectrum auction, BusinessWeek points out the same impression that we've had, that the openness model is inevitable, and that "market demand for open networks would be impossible to hold back indefinitely." You hear that, AT&T? [BusinessWeek]

Of course AT&T and Google have "talked" about OHA—note the past tense, and that de la Vega hasn't met with Google himself. Also, neither AT&T nor Verizon will publicly shut out joining—via the WSJ there were similar rumors about Verizon "weighing" the option. But there's too much against it happening.

Wilson broke down why Sprint and T-Mobile joined and the two largest carriers didn't. There's also the wildly conflicting interests, which seem to have gotten still more intense this past week. Sure, AT&T could still buddy up. And so could Microsoft. [Mercury News via Broadband Reports]

The Droid family of fonts consists of Droid Sans, Droid Sans Mono and Droid Serif. Each contains extensive character set coverage including Western Europe, Eastern/Central Europe, Baltic, Cyrillic, Greek and Turkish support. The Droid Sans regular font also includes support for Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean support for the GB2312, Big 5, JIS 0208 and KSC 5601 character sets respectively.

What do you guys think of what they've already got? [Typophile via Daring Fireball]

The only companies that join consortia are the ones who are too stupid or shitty to make a great product on their own. It's like, Hey, we've got forty spazzo companies that can't fuck their way out of a paper bag; let's put them all together and maybe they'll magically become some kind of big bad powerhouse.

There are, of course, numerous cons to the singular "hand of God" approach, but the problems with consortia that FSJ lays out are real. It's hard for everyone to agree, and rarely do all involved push for the "greater good" at their individual expense. It might be different this time around, but with so much at stake, martyrs for the Alliance probably won't exactly be lining up. And oh yeah, there's no phone to wrap our hands around yet. [FSJ via Daring Fireball]

He added:

"There's 10, 15, 20, maybe 25 different Linux platforms out there. It sometimes appears that Linux is fragmenting faster than it unifies."

"I think if you look at the market share slides you'll see we're no stranger to competing with big brands... We're the market leader, and we aim to remain the market leader."

Another niggling issue for the juggernaut pair is Google's probable bid for wireless spectrum in the FCC's upcoming 700Mhz auction. If it winds up turning up its chunk into a mobile network, it'd be pulling a Microsoft by competing and partnering with them simultaneously, which apparently they don't take too kindly to.

Of course, this is on top of all the other reasons they weren't exactly clamoring to jump aboard in the first place. [WSJ]