Shane Richmond reports:
This week Google released an update to its Android mobile operating system. Known as FroYo, the new operating system makes Android mobile phones up to five times faster and makes it possible to use the phone as a wireless hotspot.
The update, the seventh since Android launched in September 2008, comes just a week after Apple launched the iPhone 4 – the latest version of the mobile phone that kicked-off a touchscreen revolution. The timing of the two launches seems emblematic of the rivalry between the two technology giants but Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman and CEO, is keen to play down the conflict.
“We don’t have a plan to beat Apple, that’s not how we operate,” Schmidt says. “We’re trying to do something different than Apple and the good news is that Apple is making that very easy.”
“The difference between the Apple model and the Google model is easy to understand – they’re completely different. The Google model is completely open. You can basically take the software – it’s free – you can modify whatever you want, you can add any kind of app, you can build any kind of business model on top of it and you can add any kind of hardware. The Apple model is the inverse.”
Read more in the Telegraph.