(MSNBC)
Open for Business: Android Phones
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OCTOBER 08, 2009
Suzanne Choney, MSNBC

When the first Android phone hit the market last fall, enthusiastic champions and early adopters of the open-source Android operating system — based on Linux — were thrilled. They had a one-of-a-kind smartphone that set them apart from the rest of the herd. BlackBerry? Feh. iPhone? Meh. Windows Mobile? Nah.
Google shepherded Android, and the “Google phone,” as it became known, was a hit. But for most of this past year, it was out in the wireless wilderness, all by itself. No more.
More phones using Android were announced this week, tied to the fall show of CTIA, the wireless industry’s trade association. The iPhone leads the app pack with more than 85,000 “apps,” or programs available, but the Android Market continues to grow, with more than 10,000 apps.
Verizon signs on
Cell phone carrier Verizon Wireless made big news Oct. 6 when it said it will carry Android phones, with devices to be unveiled in the coming weeks. Google CEO and chairman Eric Schmidt, left, and Lowell McAdam, president and CEO of Verizon Wireless, held what one Verizon spokeswoman termed as “symbolic of the kinds of devices that will be available in the near future. We aren't announcing devices in the photo.”
Verizon Wireless, the nation’s largest mobile carrier in the United States, is third in bringing Android phones to its lineup. T-Mobile was first, followed by Sprint.
Samsung Behold II
Samsung’s Behold II will be offered by T-Mobile in time for the holidays (no word on pricing yet). It has a 3.2-inch AMOLED (Active Matrix-Organic Light-Emitting Diodes) display, which means more vivid colors and energy efficiency (translate: should help reduce battery drain).
The touch-screen phone will use Samsung’s “cube menu” as part of its “TouchWiz” user interface to provide quick access to YouTube, music, photos and the Web, T-Mobile says. The phone has Wi-Fi and is also 3G, or third-generation wireless, for faster Web browsing. It includes a 5-megapixel camera with flash and can take video.
Samsung Moment
The Samsung Moment heads to Sprint on Nov. 1, and will cost $179.99 with a two-year agreement. Like its sibling, the Behold II, the Moment will have a 3.2-inch AMOLED touch screen, and it will be Sprint’s first phone with such an energy-saving display, the company says.
The Moment will also have an 800-megahertz processor, faster than those on most mobile devices. The Moment has Wi-Fi, a 3.2-megapixel camera with flash and video, and an “optical” joystick under the display.
Users can get work e-mail through Microsoft Exchange Active Sync. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.) Its media player has a 3.5mm headset jack.
Motorola Cliq
It’s Motorola’s first Android phone, and it will be available in November from T-Mobile. (Cost is $199 with a two-year contract. Existing customers can sign up for the phone during a “pre-sale” from Oct. 19 to Nov. 1.)
Motorola said this week at CTIA that Android will be important to its future, with several phones planned, and this one holds a lot of promise. The Cliq, on first glance, seems almost Palm Pre-like with its social-centric sensibilities. Motorola’s “MotoBlur” software will sync contacts, messages and photos from Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and MySpace, as well as work and personal e-mail.
The Cliq has a 3.1-inch touch screen, but it also comes with a physical QWERTY keyboard that slides out from its side. It has a 5-megapixel camera and can also take video.
HTC Hero
The HTC Hero is Sprint’s first Android phone, and will be available Oct. 11 ($179.99 with a two-year contract). The touch-screen phone has “Footprints,” a program from HTC that lets users “chronicle their special moments by capturing a digital postcard on their phone,” says Sprint. Users can take notes and do an audio clip to attach as well with Footprints, which also names each postcard with the general location or area, the company says.
The Hero’s 3.2-inch screen can be customized with widgets of the user’s choosing. The Wi-Fi device has a 5-megapixel camera and shoots video. The phone also includes stereo Bluetooth capability for cord-free music listening and a trackball for navigating the screen. And if the phone rings at a wrong time for you, it can be silenced by “simply turning it over,” Sprint says.
T-Mobile myTouch 3G with Google
The second Google phone, released in July (T-Mobile; $149.99 with two-year contract) is made by HTC, which went with a touch-screen-only device in contrast to the original T-Mobile G1, which has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
The 3.2-inch screen can also be navigated using a trackball, and it includes a 3.1-megapixel camera.
Unlike the G1, the myTouch comes with built-in support for Microsoft Exchange Active Sync, so work e-mail can be received on the phone.
Coming soon for the “Guitar Heroes” among you: a “Fender” limited edition of the myTouch, which has a “guitar-inspired wood-grain finish” and will have a 3.5mm headset jack (unlike the regular myTouch, which has a 2.5mm jack), T-Mobile says. No word on pricing yet.
The original Google phone
Does it seem retro already at a year old? Perhaps. But don’t count it out.
The first Google phone, the T-Mobile G1 made by HTC, was not much of a looker, but has some nice features and did well in the marketplace, with more than 1 million of them sold. It can still be purchased for around $100 from Amazon.com (the original price was $179 with two-year contract).
The G1 has a trifecta of ways to access it: touch, trackball and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The 3.2-inch screen is the same size as the one on the newer myTouch. And the G1’s Jay Leno-like chin makes it easy for tucking it under your own when you need your hands for other things and don’t have a Bluetooth headset available.

© 2008 msnbc.com
Reproduced with permission of MSNBC, from ‘Open’ for business: Android phones: Google phone won’t be alone for long; more Android phones announced by Suzanne Choney, October 8, 2009; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.

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