If you remember all the recent ballyhoo about Google entering the wireless handset market with a possible gPhone, and their announcement last week that they weren’t going to release the product but instead they’ve created the Open Handset Alliance that ties numerous mobile device vendors to a common API (Applications Programming Interface). Well, I logged into Google code today to get some documentation for a project I’m working on and I noticed they’ve begun releasing information on their “Android” platform to developers and have issued the Android SDK (Software Development Kit). The Android SDK is utilizing the Java programming language, so it should be fairly easy to implement solutions for most developers familiar with object oriented programming and Java architecture. Here’s a quote from the site that summarizes the Android platform.
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Android is a software stack for mobile devices including an operating system, middleware and key applications. It is being developed by the Open Handset Alliance, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies. Android was built from the ground-up to enable developers to create compelling mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer. Developers can create applications for the platform using the Android SDK. |
The main repository for the Android API is located here :
http://code.google.com/android
The Android SDK can be downloaded here :
http://code.google.com/android/download.html
Rumour has it that Google is excited about this alliance with other moblie companies and they have plans to deliver contextual ads to people’s phones. I’m not quite sure how well received such a project that would deliver ads to handsets would be, but only time will tell. As far as mobile device SDK’s go, Motorola and companies like PALM have had JAVA based open architectures for years now, so in my opinion there’s nothing compelling or innovative here. Additionally, when one considers how propietary the handset and mobile manufacturing industry is, I find it hard to imagine that the biggest companies out there will open their architecture to a single platform because there’s certain disadvantages to shared technologies when we’re talking about the manufacturing of electronic devices. After all, if all handsets or electronic devices were created equal, there would be no advantages to owning one brand over another.
As a lifelong developer who loves Linux and has years of experience with JAVA, I am intrigued by the Android API and SDK, and the coolest part is that Android relies on Linux version 2.6 for core system services such as security, memory management, process management, network stack, and driver model. The kernel also acts as an abstraction layer between the hardware and the rest of the software stack.
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