AT&T: Looking at Google's Android

Posted by: Olga Kharif on April 03, 2008

Over the past several months, quite a few people have begun to doubt Google’s ability to attract a significant number of carriers and handset makers to its Android operating system for cell phones. Well, today’s comments by AT&T at CTIA could change that.

U.S.’s largest wireless service provider, AT&T, has been meeting with Google to discuss the possibility of using Android as the basis of AT&T’s phones. If AT&T follows these words with deeds, that would give Android a huge boost. After all, every operating system’s adoption hinges, in large part, on carriers. And if giant AT&T gives Android a nod, handset makers and other carriers may be more willing to give this new software a second look.

Such a decision could also turn wireless ecosystem upside down. Today, handset makers like Nokia carry a lot of weight in deciding which operating system should go on a particular cell phone model. Perhaps carriers will start to have more influence in these decisions.