Google’s Android pops up in Barcelona

BARCELONA, Spain — The Android has landed, so to speak.
A number of chip companies showed off demonstrations of Google Inc.’s Android cellphone software today at the Mobile World Congress trade show here. Google and the Open Handset Alliance released Android’s software development kit (SDK), which included both software and a user interface, late last year.
Texas Instruments was among a number of chip companies boasting prototype devices running the software platform. Qualcomm Inc., ARM and others also had Android demonstrations on hand, according to media reports. The efforts largely appeared to be geared toward enticing handset vendors with snappy chips rather than flaunting the advancements of the software itself.
Nonetheless, the demonstrations gave industry watchers their first taste of Google’s hotly anticipated efforts in the handset business.
At its booth, TI had several prototype phones running the Android software, all of which shared the same slab, QWERTY form factor.
The demo phones featured a number of now-standard cellphone features, including Internet browsing, texting and calendaring functions. The user interface snapped smoothly among the services, but TI executives warned that the gadget wasn’t a fully operational phone. The demonstration was instead intended to show off TI’s implementation skills, and the abilities of its OMAP-branded chips.