Motorola Backs Google’s Android, Others Will Follow

Motorola announced today that it plans to ship its first phone running Google’s Android platform in late 2009. This appears to be a good move for the company, which needs to stand out in the market after losing $397 million this past quarter and laying off 4,800 workers.

Of course, this still leaves Motorola about a year behind T-Mobile, which released the G1 in stores this week. For those who have missed the news, the T-Mobile G1 is the first mobile device to run Google’s open source Android platform, is comparably equipped to today’s competing smartphones, and is priced at $179.99.

Hop-On has also promised to release an Android phone, which it plans to unveil at the upcoming CES tradeshow in January. There haven’t been any other announcements to my knowledge, though Sprint’s CEO has stated that Android is not good enough yet for Sprint.

In time, it seems fair to assume that nearly all smartphone providers targeting consumers will adopt Android for some of their devices, as consumers hungry for open source—and the library of apps it’s likely to acquire—demand it. (The last I heard, there are already over 100 apps for the G1.) Then again, Apple has proven with the iPhone, iPod, and its Macintosh computers that “cool” doesn’t have to be open source.

What do you think? Will Android push back Windows Mobile to a select population of business smartphones? Will the iPhone eventually dominate the smartphone market? Or will the Blackberry Storm reclaim RIM’s once-ubiquitous population of “crackberry” addicts?

Or, if you’re still not sure what to think, check out the resources below for the latest news on the smartphone market.

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