10 Challenges that Google's Android Platform Faces In the Next 12 Months

HTC/T-Mobile/Google's G1 smartphone is finally out and reviews are rapidly cropping around but already, there are a number of flaws, some small, others worryingly massive, in Google's strategy that have been made even more prominent after yesterday's successful launch.

We've rounded up 10 potential challenges and there are certainly way more that will be unearthed either by our fellow readers or other journos over the next few weeks.

1. Where are the other Androids?
That's probably the most glaring omission in Google's strategy. Granted the first iteration of Android is a little bit more complicated than, say releasing Windows Vista, but we were expecting more than one smartphone to be pushed out of the door. Motorola, LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics are all three Handset manufacturers and part of the OHA and yet they have been astonishingly coy about Android. Why HTC, a Windows-mobile stalwart, has been given the lead role in the Android movie is something that is quite puzzling. LG new android phone is rumoured to be coming soon but the OHA needs to be way more aggressive it wants to convince tens of millions of prospective customers to adopt Android.

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2. Where are the other network partners?
Granted T-Mobile has nearly 120 million network partners worldwide, but yesterday's release was rather low key when compared to Apple's multi timezone release of the iPhone. The Open Handset Alliance includes Telefonica, China Mobile and NTT Docomo and like Motorola and the other handset manufacturers, they have been astoundingly silent with regards to Android roll out on their networks in the next few months ahead. Google has apparently played it safe by going with T-Mobile, a mobile operator with whom it launched Web'n'walk a few years ago, which in turn meant that HTC, T-Mobile preferred smartphone manufacturer, was almost certainly selected by default.

3. The V Word... To VoIP or Not Too?
The first G1 was expected to come with Voice over IP capabilities and it was quite surprising to see that T-Mobile lobbied for this to be canned altogether. This is quite surprising given that Ebay, the owner of Skype, is also a member of the Open Handset Alliance. There's already one mainstream mobile network - Hutchinson Whampoa's Three network - which offers free Skype to all  its users, something that other service providers will almost certainly oppose. T-Mobile, O2 and others expressly exclude Voice over IP usage from their "unlimited" internet access package.

4. Hidden Agendas of other OHA Partners and Back office politics
The VoIP issue hides an even broader issue which threatens the very existence of the Open Handset Alliance. Google is the driving force behind the Open Handset Alliance and while having an alliance or a consortium can help achieve grand projects faster, the fact that it counts some of the world's biggest technology companies at its core could make things much, much more difficult than if Google went alone. Sure, they bring in technological expertise and loads, loads of top notch engineers. But could it be a matter of too many captains on the OHA boat, some of which are bigger than Google...