Is the world's most prolific mobile processor designer finally cozying up to Google and its Open Handset Alliance? It certainly looks like it. According to Reuters, we could be getting our first official glimpse of what an Android-based smartphone can do next week at the Mobile World Congress wireless show in Barcelona.
Sources say that ARM -- a company that designs processor cores found in the iPhone, the Nintendo DS, various Blackberries and basically every other popular mobile device -- will demonstrate new prototype phones next Monday, all running Google's open source Android operating system.
To date, ARM has been one of the more notable holdouts from Google's OHA. In fact, Samsung, Marvell and Texas Instruments (all companies that actually manufacture the ARM-based processor cores) are already a part of the handset alliance. And even though the Linux-based Android already theoretically supports ARM-based processors, development can be a headache, especially if developers want to create software that works consistently across phones from multiple manufacturers.
[via Reuters]
