Google's Android hits speed bumps: WSJ

Carriers and developers are reportedly struggling with Google's still-brewing mobile platform, and some operators are now saying that their first Android phones won't arrive until next year. Meanwhile, it sounds like more and more developers are flocking to BlackBerry and the iPhone.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Sprint, one of the U.S. carriers that had hoped to launch an Android phone this year, has been bumped until at least 2009 as Google focuses on getting T-Mobile's planned Android phone out the door by late '08.

Also running into trouble is China Mobile, which is struggling to prep a Chinese version of Android and will likely push its first Android-based phone back to late 2008 or early 2009, the WSJ reports.

So, what's the problem? Two things, according to the Journal (besides China Mobile's language headaches, that is): The open-source Android platform itself is still undergoing some pretty significant changes, which is spooking software developers, while building custom, "branded" versions of Google's mobile apps for the various carriers is taking longer than anyone expected.

Now, Google has been telling us all along that Android-based phones won't be out until late this year, but the whispers that developers are skittish about Android should be setting off alarm bells.

On the other hand, developers are apparently champing at the bit to write apps for more stable platforms, such as RIM's BlackBerry (which is about to get an enticing new model, the Bold) and, of course, the iPhone.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that Apple's coming App Store has "triggered a scramble" of developers, with more than 250,000 copies of the iPhone SDK downloaded in past months, while the Journal notes that developers are having an "easier" time with Apple's programming kit than they are with Google's.

OK, so what does it all mean? Is Android in serious trouble?

Well, with its almost limitless resources and determination to work its way into the mobile space (with billions in mobile advertising dollars at stake), you'd be foolish to count Google out. Launching a new platform is never easy, and I'm sure that we'll see a healthy crop of Android phones next year once the kinks are working out.

But by giving Apple—and Apple-friendly software developers—a six-month head start and allowing the likes of RIM and Windows Mobile more time to dig in, Google may well have missed a chance to dominate the mobile software field as it has with search.

And as a mobile developer quoted in the Merc story notes, the iPhone might become the first platform to truly "kick-start" mobile advertising rather than Android—and let's face it, advertising is (like it or not) the pot of gold at the end of the wireless rainbow.

Google will, of course, be a player in mobile software (and, by extension, advertising), Android delays or no—but it might not be the player, and that's got to hurt.

Note: This is probably a good time to remind everyone that Yahoo! is, of course, a competitor of Google's. I'm sure you knew that, but just throwing it out there.

Related:
Google Mobile-Handset Plans Are Slowed [WSJ]
Apple's bait: Application developers swarm to iPhone [San Jose Mercury News]