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As Engadget pointed out, at Mobile World Congress 2009 in February, LG announced they were making Windows Mobile their Operating System of choice. Whether or not they’ve had a change of heart or are fiddling with technicalities and verbage, LG CEO Nam Yong just announced that Android offerings will compose almost half of their smartphones launched in 2010.
I also found his comments of Google being the only alternative rather curious:
“We will have smart phones running on Windows Mobile, but about 50 percent of our smart phone models will run on Android,” Nam told reporters at a trade show in Las Vegas.
The company did not confirm the release date or the number of models it plans to launch this year.
LG will also turn to Google for content used with its smartphones, Nam added.
“The operating system itself will not guarantee competitiveness in mobile content,” he said. “For now, Google’s content seems to be the only alternative.”
Is there a translation gap? Or is LG claiming that Android is so good that nobody can really compete by offering a smartphone without Android Market and Google Core App elements?
LG previously had signed an “agreement” with Microsoft, to make most of its phones based on Microsoft’s beleaguered Windows Mobile OS. I interpret it to mean that Microsoft actually paid LG to choose Windows Mobile over Android. Such desperate measures by Microsoft certainly don’t make a viable long-term business model.
But something has happened since. LG announcing that Android is the only way to go, and that most of its phones will now be Android phones. It’s an abrupt turn-around by LG, who obviously realised that Microsoft’s Windows Phone has no future. Maybe LG had an out-clause in the contract, in case a disaster happened with Windows Mobile’s market share. Such a disaster for Windows Mobile has come true.
LG is following all the other OEMs in dumping Windows Mobile, and switching to Android. You’ll find there are also no more Windows Mobile phones coming out of Sony Ericsson after the X2.
Google’s content, which LG mentions, is probably its turn-by-turn mapping that comes free with Android phones.
Kelly that is…something else and I am sure you are right in all you said. Nice to see android just getting bigger and bigger…I think and hope Google makes a phone…world phone that would really be something cool and dandy I think
> I interpret it to mean that Microsoft actually paid LG to choose Windows Mobile over Android.
Of course. That’s Microsoft’s way. They did the same with Verizon to make Bing the default (and un-changeable) search engine on the browser (http://community.vzw.com/t5/BlackBerry-Devices/All-other-search-providers-removed-required-to-use-bing/td-p/133060).
When you’re MS, it’s easier to buy market share than actually innovate.
Verbage is correctly spelled verbiage. It is also one of the most mispronounced words in the English language. It is properly pronounced: ver’-bee-edg
LG suck.
Their phones tend to have resistive touch screens. And the fact they are trying to replicate their native UI style (which I hate) within Android just annoys me.
It’s becoming pretty evident that APPS are going to drive people to one phone or another. I don’t really doubt that WinMo 7 will be pretty cool. But Nokia has pretty cool phones. Neither platform has generated much of an app market for whatever reasons. There seem to be only two platforms that are generating attractive numbers of apps, and those two are iPhone and Android. And of those two, the only one available to any and all manufacturers is Android. I think this is what LG means when they say it’s about the only alternative.
@Kelly Neustadt:
> I interpret it to mean that Microsoft actually paid LG
> to choose Windows Mobile over Android.
‘Paid to choose’ is such an unfortunate phrase…sounds a bit underhanded, like bribery. Microsoft prefers to use the more upbeat phrase ‘marketing assistance’, which conveys the notion that the folks in Redmond are merely lending a hand. They’re all about helping smaller, less fortunate companies, you know.
Anyway, remember how the CEO of HTC said there would be no Android version of the HD2? That’s ‘marketing assistance’ in action.
> Maybe LG had an out-clause in the contract […]
Or, the agreement simply expired.
2010 represents the dawning of a whole, new day for the sorry lot that are WinMo licensees. Unless WM7 really does preview in March and it offers a truly amazing improvement over WM6, mobile manufacturers are going to avoid it like plague. And, if that happens, the 2010 marketing agreements had better start arriving in nothing short of 9-digit form.
Love LG phones. I’ve had my current LG phone for 2.5 years and it still works like a charm, original battery, no issues. LG will give HTC and Moto a run for their money on Android phones.
LG’s are generally polished, stylish, and have excellent cameras.
I can’t wait to see what they come up with.