Submitted by Google and 33 other companies have announced an ambitious industry alliance that will maintain a completely open source mobile phone stack. The Open Handset Alliance says phones based on its Linux-based ‘Android’ stack will reach market in as soon as eight months. The Android stack is based on ‘open Linux kernel’, the group says. It also includes a full set of mobile phone application software, in order to “significantly lower the cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services”, OHA said.
Very much looking forward to this!
Anything but symbian and windows mobile.
Hope it includes Java – can’t live without Opera Mini
I’m not a Google evangelist but this is far more interesting than the hugely overrated Apple iPhone. I wonder how Apple will respond if it takes off ?
For some reason, I seriously doubt this will be after the same market as the iPhone. My guess is that it will more directly compete with windows mobile, palm, and blackberry.
I switched from a Blackberry to an iPhone and am seriously considering an Android phone. They compete for me.
Blackberry: Great email. Horrible web browser.
iPhone: browser is excellent but the mail app sucks. I use Gmail for Domains and REALLY miss their Blackberry app. Google adding IMAP support is an improvement but still not close. Maybe come February they’ll port their app. I never use the iPod features.
Android: Better have a great web browser. This play is all about the mobile internet! Gmail integration is assumed. If it doesn’t have both this’ll be a failure.
What makes you think Apple isn’t listening to the countless complaints about the MobileMail app interface? Unlike Nokia, Apple has clearly expressed that the iPhone software will never be set in stone, and the revenue accounting procedures were set in place explicitly to enable delivering software updates, minor and major, from the occasional new app (like the Wifi Store) to complete overhauls (which I suspect will begin to show up after the SDK is published).
Anyway, the MobileMail app is *the* sore thumb sticking out, so I’m confident Apple will overhaul it completely just for the sake of avoiding the harsh criticism they’re getting so far. Even if you count out the ego factor, the fact that they’re publishing job offers that are squarely directed to MS Exchange is enough for me to believe they intend to come up with something that will put Blackberry’s interface to shame.
Just watch.
It probably will bundle some version of Firefox, or even WebKit (the source is open, after all). OTOH, I’ve seen nothing on MobileSafari that makes using the web interface to gmail less than stellar. Zoom is your friend (and the pinky finger, as a last resort).
Disclaimer: I don’t have an iPhone, but I played a little with the iPod touch and I’ve seen numerous, numerous, numerous videos demoing each app.
it is likely that Android is a Java based system (some of the members in the page deals with java). it can be like Savaje, a very thin OS layer and everything else is running on a Java virtual machine. i think Savaje was Java 1.4 compliant, so it is not a far fetched guess that Android supports a form of Java standard edition, not micro edition. There are already fully functional java browsers available, such as http://www.webrenderer.com/ so,browser can be covered easily. But still, all are guesses.
So far the only technical detail I can find, other than that it’s based on a Linux kernel, is that “it utilizes a custom virtual machine that has been designed to optimize memory and hardware resources in a mobile environment.”
It’s anyone’s guess whether this VM is a bare-metal abstraction underneath Linux or a high-level runtime for application development.
Although the list of alliance members is impressive, it seems like a lot of these corporations are hedging their bets amongst the plethora of competing Linux-based smartphone projects. The FOSS community won’t have any incentive to vote with its participation until somebody gets a viable and open device on the market.
Yes, I was waiting with bated breath for yet another announced linux-based open stack for smartphones, it’s been at least six months since the last one. I suspect we’ll probably see one or two more, before the industry starts to run out of ideas to standardize on and actually gets around to producing something.
just so i can say “told you so”… Android IS going to run on iPhone! no question about it! hell, the browser in android is WEBKIT!!!!! if this is not apparent… this crowd is NOT all that savvy!
I’ve gotta applaud your enthusiasm and desire to open up the phone stack; HOWEVER, let me be the first one to tell you that you’re wasting your time. In order to get any significant distribution, you have to do a deal with the major mobile telcos. Apple found out the hard way. It had to partner with AT&T in order to sell its iPhones. AT&T forced Apple into greatly crimping the openness of the iPhone architecture, and the reason is simple: The mobile telcos want to own a piece of the entire mobile ecosystem (the packet networks, the protocols, the applications, the ringtones, the wallpaper, everything. They don’t want to open up the entire architecture and become marginalized like Internet ISPs. Why? Because Internet ISPs are nothing more than cables, routers, and switches. They don’t add any more value than that. They don’t own a piece of the commerce that flows over their cables. But mobile telcos DO. Unlike ISPs, they get paid by the minute. And they’re NOT going to be willing to open up the phone architecture and allow themselves to be pushed aside like ISPs.
So, in summary, it’s a noble effort but, ultimately, it’s doomed to obsolescence unless you change the fundamental way that wireless phone networks are administered. Don’t expect mobile telcos to cooperate, either. They would be slitting their own throats by embracing any of this — don’t kid yourself — and they know it.
[TO THE folks who mod down this post simply on the basis that you disagree with its contents: You’re small, petty dorks — and you will always be small, petty dorks]
Edited 2007-11-06 20:53 UTC
In order to get any significant distribution, you have to do a deal with the major mobile telcos
You should come and see how it works in europe.
We buy phones (totally unlocked), then we choose a telco.
That’s not the reality in the United States.
Apple HAD to partner with AT&T?
Puhlease… You don’t think that if Apple created the iPhone as a pure GSM phone with a SIM card slot, and then sold it without a specific cell company contract that people wouldn’t buy it? And, are you telling me that none of the cell companies would accept the millions of new customers just because the phone isn’t an exclusive to them? People would FLOCK to the company that wanted the customers, which would be all the GSM ones (look at the ones that accept iPhone customers that have unlocked their phones).
Maybe you’re right… I mean, depending on what they were trying to do, partnering exclusively with AT&T was required (If they were trying to lock-in people to no third party software, and get a huge kickback from AT&T from the contracts.).
Apple was in probably the best position of any company to be the one to break the mold, but instead they showed their true colors. Google is probably the next best positioned company, but they’re not a hardware company with a huge following of loyal consumers that are already locked in to their products (see: iPod and iTunes).
Disclaimer: I can’t stand apologists of any company.
Oh, and though I disagree with you, I modded you up because it appears some people are trying to silence you because they disagree… That’s never an intelligent action.
Edited 2007-11-10 00:57
So… the year of the Linux Desktop (Dell Ubuntu etc) + Mobile (Android/OpenMoko) + Internet Tablet (Nokia N***/Asus EEE) is nigh?
Seems it has been given a push in numerous areas this last year.
Would not be at all surprising. Andy Rubin comes from Danger, which has been shipping Java SE (not ME) phones for years.