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Android is providing a useful entry point into the once tightly closed mobile ecosystem, for a number of disruptive players (apart from Google itself), and Broadcom is set to be one of these. While the chip designer, despite its success in broadband and Wi-Fi silicon, has struggled to make an impact on cellphones, it does have an advantage in multimode handsets that incorporate Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and it is now bringing that expertise to Android.

An early member of the Open Handset Alliance, the industry group that supports Android, Broadcom has ported the combination drivers for its Bluetooth/Wi-Fi chip to the operating system, enabling designers of Android handsets to build this chip, the popular BCM4325, into their designs easily. To date, they have had to use separate components to support both wireless standards, adding to cost, device size and power consumption.

"Two of the most exciting trends in the handset industry are the growing popularity of Android and the transition to combo chips for connectivity," said Chris Bergey, director of Broadcom's embedded WLan business, in a statement. "We expect a plethora of products and applications to evolve from the connected Android platform in the not-so-distant future." Broadcom says combo chips will capture nearly 60% of connectivity solutions in cellphones by 2012, and is fighting for slots in these handsets, against companies like CSR and Texas Instruments.

Another important player in Android has been Wind River, the real time OS specialist. It worked with Qualcomm to optimize and integrate Android for the chip giant's Snapdragon MID platform, and will make this code available to the OHA. But Wind River is spreading its favors, and has been chosen by the other major mobile Linux organization, LiMo Foundation, as the integrator, to deliver common infrastructure, tools, testing and integration services for all code contributions from LiMo members.

Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation, said: "Through its selection of Wind River as a company with a legacy of world class embedded software, LiMo expects to be able to accelerate its goal of reducing Linux fragmentation while intensifying platform development through the rapid adoption of member contributions." All contributions for the R2 version of the LiMo platform have been submitted with final delivery expected towards the end of 2009.

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