Android rumblings for next year

It’s no secret that numerous companies have joined the Open Handset Alliance, which promotes Google’s Android handset platform.
Specifics are harder to come by.
But it appeared this week, from various media reports, that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Garmin are working on Android-based handsets.
Earlier this month, AT&T Mobility executives mentioned Android as one possible platform the carrier may support in the future as it winnows the number it will support. AT&T Mobility is not yet a member of the OHA, but could lend the effort a key bit of carrier support that lends credibility to the platform.
Current OHA members include handset vendors Samsung, LG Electronics Co., Motorola Inc., Sony Ericsson and Huawei (Nokia Corp. is conspicuously absent but is pursuing an open-source Symbian platform), and carriers such as Vodafone, T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel Corp. Chip-vendor members include ARM, Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc., Texas Instruments, Inc., Marvell Semiconductor Inc., Ericsson and Broadcom Corp.
The Garmin work was first reported by Information Week. Samsung’s interest was reported first in Korean IT News.