I recently picked up the T-mobile G1 running the Android OS and for the past few weeks have been comparing it side-by-side with a jail-broken iPhone still on AT&T. There are a lot of great applications for Android that have been created so far — such as Ecorio (profiled in this blog), Google Voice (I now have all phones, landline and mobile, synced to one number), and Wikitude, which I have to admit was the real driver behind this purchase.

In previous installments of this series, we’ve covered a few examples of phone-car convergence such as the Land Rover LRX. We would be remiss if we did not report on the iChange, the latest concept car developed by Rinspeed that was recently unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show.

In past articles in this series, we’ve talked about the emerging meme of phone-car convergence. It is difficult to predict what sorts of automobiles will emerge, or how innovative automobile companies are willing to be in this volatile economic climate, but as we study trends in the two seemingly distinct technology areas of automobiles and cellphones, it is becoming clear that cars are well on their way to becoming highly sophisticated network computers. In this article we look at Android, and why it could be significant to the automobile industry.

In When your car is your phone, which appeared in the Mobile issue of the Headlight blog, I covered phone/car integration and the potential impact of the current mobile-application-development frenzy. I posited that the platform of choice for automakers will likely be the iPhone for two reasons:

It seems that phone integration has become something of a grail quest within the automobile industry.

Prior to the release of the iPhone there were rumors circulating that Apple and Volkswagen were planning to collaborate on an “i-Car.” Despite being a brand-match made in heaven, the deal never got off the ground. BMW quickly stepped in to become the first auto maker to support iPhone in-car integration, enabling customers to access their music, contact lists and make hands-free calls via in-car controls.

Since then Ford and Microsoft have introduced Ford SYNC, a voice-activated in-car communications and entertainment system that enables drivers to control their mobile devices and media players (including Apple’s iPod and Microsoft’s Zune) using voice commands, and Nokia has been exploring in-car integration with its branded Ford Mustang concept car that supports multiple N800 Internet Tablets and Renault’s Twingo Nokia Special Edition.