AT&T to Embrace Google’s Android

Conspicuously absent from initial supporters of Google's Android mobile platform, AT&T now says it will sell Android mobile devices.

When Google announced its Android mobile phone platform back in November, mobile carriers like Sprint and T-Mobile were members of the Open Handset Alliance from the outset. Now, U.S. carrier AT&T says it will also offer phones based on Google’s Android architecture, after having been assured by Google that the company won’t be locked into only offering Google applications on the devices.

According to numerous reports, at this week’s CTIA wireless conference in Las Vegas, Google assured AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega that AT&T would be able to customize Android devices with any applications they liked.

AT&T’s reluctance to support Android may foreshadow issues operators and consumers may have with Android phones once they reach the market. Applications developed for Android phones may not operate consistently across all devices and all carriers, which may lead to consumer confusion. Inconsistently may not just depend on a device’s hardware setup, but it’s conceivable operators could deploy applications that rely on services only available on their own networks.

Of the major U.S. mobile carriers, Verizon has not explicitly declared support for Android, but has announced an p-lans to open its network to any compatible device, which in theory would at least let compatible Android phones operate unsupported on its network.