Android Now Used by 23 Million in the US

wholesale cool gadgets store Oracle (Java) and Qualcomm (BREW) still rule the U.S. mobile market with no less than 164.5 million users combined. Oracle is currently suing Google with the aim of getting manufacturers to continue paying royalties to them as users move from Java phones to Android smartphones. Should Oracle win the lawsuit, it'll pretty much be status quo for most manufacturers using Android at the end of the day. wholesale Android Tablets

HTC and AT&T recently released the first BREW phone with HTC Sense, the HTC Freestyle. Given the fact that HTC Sense is the most popular Android interface in the U.S., BREW is currently a bigger threat to Google and Oracle than what they are to each other.

Out of the three big Android manufacturers in the U.S. - HTC, Motorola and Samsung - HTC is the only one that hasn't historically used Sun / Oracle technology in their phones. However, we can't imagine that HTC will have any issues with paying a royalty fee per Android phone to Oracle if it should come to that. RIM's current BlackBerry OS uses Java apps too, but that hasn't prevented the company from succeeding in a market that has always been highly competitive.

If AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile goes through, there's little doubt that AT&T would be in a position to make HTC Sense phones running BREW quite popular though. Do AT&T, Qualcomm and HTC know something you and I don't? That's fully possible, as we do know for a fact that HTC has always tended to be close to the hottest carrier action.

In other words, in the fight for mobile users moving forward, we regard HTC Sense as an effort of high significance. And it's worth remembering that Apple thinks so too, otherwise they wouldn't have sued HTC around a year ago. Apple used to be AT&T's premium partner, but it looks like HTC has taken over that position, or what?

If you're not convinced, take a look at AT&T's current lineup, and you'll find the most recent HTC Freestyle powered by BREW, the HTC Inspire 4G powered by Android, and soon, you'll get the HTC HD7S powered by Windows Phone. That's quite a selection of brand new HTC phones covering each level of the mobile market.

Should Microsoft remove some of the restrictions on Windows Phone, something that will likely happen, HTC Sense will soon need to be counted as one system when conducting market surveys. The days when a given operating system or a given device mattered will soon be long gone.

Android's challenge moving forward will be to continue improving key functionality while also enabling new opportunities for users, manufacturers and developers alike. Despite some rumors out there, it looks like Google is on top of things, so there's no reason why Android shouldn't be capable of continuing its growth.