T-Mobile has been out in front of the Android wave, having launched the first Android device, the G1, a year ago.
The company plans on riding that wave well into the future, said Cole Brodman, T-Mobile's chief technology and innovation officer, at the Open Mobile Summit this morning.
Brodman shared some insights into T-Mobile's Android business and explained how T-Mobile is looking to get the most out of the platform for itself, consumers and developers. T-Mobile has four Android devices on sale for this holiday season.
He said Android has led to a 50x jump in data consumption for T-Mobile with 80 percent of Android users browsing at least once a day and 2/3 of Android users browsing several times a day.
He said half of the users visit the Android Market at least once a day and nearly half of the users of the latest MyTouch 3G have "completely customized" their phones.
More than 40 percent of users use their Android device for social networking, he said.
"People are using (their Android devices) beyond voice, text messaging and simple communications," he said. "Android, for us, is a great accelerant. We feel there's a lot of opportunity to drive innovation on top of this platform.
To help drive the Android ecosystem and keep customers and developers satisfied with the experience, T-Mobile is rolling out a number of initiatives specific to Android. In addition to embedding more apps on devices, T-Mobile is creating its own T-Mobile Channel in the Android Market on Nov. 17, a sort of recommended list of apps.
Also, users will be able to tap into T-Mobile Studio, a collection of lifestyle themes, which will then recommend a number of apps to you based on your interests. For example, musicians will get a list of good apps related to music.
On Nov. 17, T-Mobile will also allow users to buy Android Market apps by just posting the purchase to their T-Mobile bill. "It's another accelerant to make sure the paid ecosystem can thrive and flourish," Brodman said.
Brodman said this is the year of Android and he expects to see millions of devices sold now that the platform is gaining momentum. The company is also trying to stay ahead of the data curve by upgrading its still unfinished 3G network to HSPA 7.2 by the end of the year. By next year, T-Mobile will be upgrading again to HSPA+ which will give users speeds of 21 megabits per second.
Posted By: Ryan Kim (Email) | November 04 2009 at 10:32 AM
Listed Under: Wireless
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?&entry_id=50971#ixzz0VwYgUbJk
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