Christmas Comes Early For Apple

The biggest challenge to Apple’s impending dominance in the smartphone market comes from a cellphone maker with even less experience than Apple had… a year ago.

Yup, the biggest issue that Apple faces isn’t from any of the current giants in the cell-phone industry but from Google. Just a few months ago Google’s upcoming Android platform seemed to have it all.

It had the backing of Google and numerous other heavy-weights.

It was planned to be open-source so that manufacturers could use it in a variety of form-factors.

It look awesome- or at least the early demoes of the platform looked awesome.

It was coming fast and furious. 

Well now word comes that that last little point may not be the case. Android phone are indeed coming… but they aren’t coming as fast or as furious as we expected.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal–

The Internet giant and more than 30 partners announced in November a bold plan for a new breed of handsets based on a suite of mobile software called Android. At the time, Google said it planned to have the new phones on the market by the second half of this year.

But now…

Google now says that the handsets won’t arrive until the fourth quarter. And some cellular carriers and makers of programs that work with Android are struggling to meet that schedule, people familiar with the situation say.

BAD NEWS for Google and its partners… AWESOME NEWS for Apple and…well… Apple.

The WSJ article goes on to note that,

There is no evidence that Android won’t be able to gain momentum over time.

And while that is certianly true, it means that Apple, itself a newcomer to the cell-phone market, will be even more of a veteran when an actual challenger finally comes along.

In the meantime Apple had better be careful… the Palm Centro is coming on strong.