Android is a feature phone not a smartphone

According to PC Magazine’s Lance Ulanoff Android’s true target isn’t the 19 percent of phones running OS’s, like BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Mac OS. It’s the other 81 percent of phones, which aren’t smartphones and run operating systems you’ve never heard of like Nucleus and P2K. This large part of the market we call feature phones has become more and more powerful, hardware-wise, over the past few years.

But the Dream isn’t the real world-beater here. The real question is what Samsung and LG plan to do with Android. The two Korean phone makers have both been running older OS’s on their high-end feature phones (think the LG Voyager) and are looking at alternatives. LG, especially, has never been active in the smartphone realm but has a hearty line of high-end feature phones.

Both companies claim they’ll be debuting Android phones in 2009. That’s when we’ll find out if Android will become a standard on the LG Shines, LG Vus, and Samsung Instincts of the world. That’s Google’s big opportunity, and it’s the real reason to get excited about Android.

via PC Magazine