Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Qualcomm progeny are Android partners

Qualcomm has very close ties to the Open Handset Alliance and its Android operating system. Thus, it’s not surprising that its Leap Wireless spinoff is winning the first Android handset for a discount carrier.

Leap’s discount brand, Cricket, is believed to be the first carrier for the new Kyocera Zio. Along with Metro PCS, Cricket has been promoting price competition in the handset business through its flat-rate pricing.

Leap was created as a 1998 spinoff of Qualcomm’s cellphone licenses. In the final irony, Kyocera got into the CDMA handset business when it bought Qualcomm’s handset business in 2000.