Google's Android Platform

quintron

Thought I'd kick off a thread for Google's forthcoming Android platform.

Its going to be an interesting 2008 with iphones, symbians new touch screen interface and the introduction of googles new platform....

As a fully open source SDK it should make for some great applications especially since Google has allocated 10 million dollars to give away to the people who develop the best applications for the platform! Very nice. (Though its about the only way they can get an "in" in the mobile industry to accelerate and entice platform developers and subsequently early adopters)

Post opinions/links here etc...

Introducing Android..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYozIZOgDk

First Blood: seeing what the Android SDK can do more or less out of the box:
http://www.slashphone.com/118/8912.html


Some Engadget Posts:
http://www.engadget.com/search/?q=Google%27s+Android+OS

If you want a slice of that 10 mil.. start writing those apps! ;-)

SDK et al here:
http://code.google.com/android/

quintron

Interesting Wall Street Journal Article re Android and the possibility of the platform utilizing its own independent spectrum.. (the 700Mhz spectrum, shortly up for auction).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119517445580795065.html?mod=rss_whats_news_technology

Bluefrog

It looks like things are beginning to move in the States with Verizon saying they'll allow any device and application on their network subject to testing.

Wonder if our minister of communications is watching developments there or even aware of them - probably not.

As for developing for Android, as a developer I don't really see the benefits of entering into this area when the telcos here keep such a stranglehold on devices and applications. I've spoken on boards about how the telcos here are choking innovation and competition. I'm sure I'm not the only developer whe would get on board with this if things were more flexible here but well, they're just not and I see no sign of that changing anytime soon.

jimmycrackcorm

I can't see it making much more difference than developing for Symbian or MS mobile applications. I think it'll have as much impact as linux has on the desktop. Just because it is Google it gets press.

It would be different if the big names such as Nokia or SE decided to switch to it otherwise a non-event only causing excitement to slashdot readers.

quintron

Famous last words eh? ;-)
Not saying its a surefire hit because google are behind it, but irrespective of the might of google, opensource tends to go.. and go.. and go.

This "open market" approach has caused some nervous reactions from the Symbian COO's already and I wouldn't even rate MS as a mobile platform these days. Its like a old house built with too many extensions, and repainted, i.e. still fugly.

IMHO, what the market needs now, based largely on the strength of the iphone hype and the subsequent need among mainstream users for "uber features" that require high speed data access (google maps anyone?) and bells and whistles, is a new platform built from the ground up whish is open source and has enough resources behind it to make it happen fast.

It could be a sh1t platform, but I doubt it will be. A la linux, it should be robust.
As a new platform starting essentially from scratch, it can engineer these "mash-up" technologies from the ground up, instead of retrofitting things on to an existing platform.

Theres a lot google can do, being a late runner into the mobile telephony/computing market and they have a lot of backing at the moment from hardware and software vendors.

A lot of what iphone (and other phones) currently do requires google searching, mapping et al anyway so I wouldn't dismiss them out of hand.

They are aware that the future of even basic search technologies lies in mobile handsets so they have to get their feet wet sometime. I think they are taking the right approach, making it open source.
'Course theres a lot that could go wrong..... but there will be a LOT of applications made for this platform in a very short space of time, and for an end user, thats good. A considerable amount of these will be free and of a high quality (due to the prize etc) and thats even better.

Theres also a strong likelyhood Nokia will make android equipped phones. Its not just S40 and S60 afterall.
Just look at Palm's roadmap.

If you can't beat them, join them maybe?

failsafe

Even if it "fails" (which I don't believe it has any chance of doing!) it will still shake up nokia and give them a much needed boot to get the their OS releases more relaible and innovative, which in my books (as a consumer) is a great success.

Look at what google have done in the past with things like email, search, advertising (the list is endless!) even if you don't switch to using their service, your existing service provider will has always stepped up their offering a notch. Hopefully Android will do the same.

With regards to the apps, i'm very much so looking forward to seeing what it produces, the combination of open source and the prize offering should hopefully produce some great things!

cgarvey

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

I can't see it making much more difference than developing for Symbian or MS mobile applications.

Dunno about that .. Having done Hello World for all 3, Android (even in its infancy) is by far the easiest to develop in, has by far the most useful frameworks/libraries included, is by far the cheapest to develop (costs of dev environment, I mean), and it's open source! It mightn't be the quickest to run (all depends on the VM, I guess), but I think there's a huge difference between developing for Android and Symbian anyway.

Time will tell, and we've to hear a bit more from Sun Java FX Mobile type offerings yet too.