We’ve been hating on Windows Mobile pretty bad lately, but we don’t feel bad about it. It’s a bloated, crappy OS in need of a major overhaul. Sadly, it’s one of the only viable commercial smartphone operating systems out right now, which is why companies like HTC use it on their smartphones.
But that may be changing. One of the general managers at HTC let slip to an intrepid blogger that HTC was planning on releasing an Android-based phone by the end of the year.
Android is Google’s smartphone OS that many of us geeks are very excited about. Linux-based and open for development, the OS could be a great rival to Apple’s iPhone, and will possibly hasten the end of Windows Mobile’s dominance.
It’s entirely possible, despite being commited to Windows Mobile 7 next year, that HTC could retreat from WinMo completely in favor of Android. We wouldn’t be surprised if Android became HTC’s default OS early next year if its as popular as we think it’ll be. We hope that’s the way things go, though we hear nice things about WinMo 7, so it’ll be an interesting year.