MOUNTAIN VIEW (RUSHPRNEWS)AUGUST 8, 2008–The word from Half Moon bay is that Google’s (GOOG) “GPhone” cell-phones, being built by various handset makers, could be delayed from an end-of-year introduction to sometime later in the first quarter of next year, according to Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research. Among the issues causing the apparent delay are the following: Handset maker High Tech Computer (HTCKF) is “having structural problems to incorporate Google’s demanded feature set”; HTC is “demanding a guaranteed minimum revenue surety from Google”, from which Chowdhry concludes that “Probably HTC does not think there will be enough demand for GPhone.”
Chowdhry adds that “contacts” tell him Google’s operating system software for the phone, Android, “is not able to attract enough developers because toolkits offered by Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Research in Motion (RIMM), and Nokia’s (NOK) Symbian software group, have sucked up software developers’ attention. He also opines that the “uneventful ending of the 700 megahertz auction [for wireless spectrum in the U.S.] has left Android in limbo.”
Today, Google shares are down $6.18, or 1.3%, to $480.16.
techtraderdaily@barrons.com Posted by Tiernan Ray
SOURCE: barrons.com