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No April Fool, AT&T *lurves* Android

Ianf [PersonRank 10]

Thursday, April 3, 2008
16 years ago2,877 views

[ Be sure to read INSPIRED COMMENT below!]

Wall Street Journal: AT&T Says It Favors Google Android System
  
By Amol Sharma/ April 3, 2008

http://mobile2.wsj.com/device/html_article.php?id=44&CALL_URL=http://online.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB120719743105985985.html%3Fmod%3Dtechnology_main_whats_news

[ INSPIRED COMMENT BEGINS: The wannabe conspiracy theorist inside me tells me Apple Co. has decided not to give their upcoming iPhone-3G business to their now-exclusive, and much reviled for it, iPhone-Edge US partner, therefore AT&T has begun looking elsewhere. INSPIRED COMMENT ENDS. Tune in next week for more INSPIRED COMMENTS of that and similar ilk.]

Martin Porcheron [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

<<He noted that AT&T will be able to customize the Android software's open-source coding to promote the carrier's own data and content services. "That's something that's very attractive to us," Mr. de la Vega said.>>

That's the main reason. It means they can stick a new OS on a mobile phone that plugs anything they own and blocks anything they don't like (eg. VoIP).

Essentially, it's saving them a load of work and money.

Ianf [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

That's a given, reason #1 'n all. Still, they're an industrial giant, or at least used to be. Is the Android OEM license so devoid of limits, that they won't have to cough up the sources should they go along with it? I'd find it hard to believe....

Roger Browne [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

[put at-character here]Ianf: feel free to look this stuff up, instead of telling us how hard you find it to believe.

There is no obligation to "cough up the sources". Here is the Android Software Development Kit License Agreement:
http://code.google.com/android/terms.html

Furthermore, Google has stated that "once the SDK reaches a more finished form, Google intends to re-release most of the components under the Apache v2.0 open source license". It's a bit hard to read the subtext here (why only "most" of the components?), but in any case the Apache license is very liberal and does not require anyone to "cough up the sources".

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