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November 5, 2007 - Following nearly a year of rank speculation concerning the release of a Google-branded smartphone, the so-called gPhone, the search engine company refocused the rumor mill this afternoon with an official announcement. Rather than a specific piece of hardware, today's announcement concerns software, namely Android, an open mobile platform developed by the Open Handset Alliance, a group of thirty-four industry leaders including HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Intel, T-Mobile, Broadcom, Qualcomm, eBay and, of course, Google.
According to a pre-announcement press release, "[t]his alliance shares a common goal of fostering innovation on mobile devices and giving consumers a far better user experience than much of what is available on today's mobile platforms. By providing developers a new level of openness that enables them to work more collaboratively, Android will accelerate the pace at which new and compelling mobile services are made available to consumers."
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With an emphasis on openness, the Android platform will include a complete software stack consisting of a mobile operating system based on Linux, middleware (software designed to help different applications interact) and applications. By making the stack open-source, specific developers and wireless carriers have the ability to customize the software as they see fit, and third-party developers can augment the existing OS through add-ons, customization, full applications and more.
Of course, with open platforms such as Android powering mobile devices, consumers may also benefit from lower prices. Carriers and hardware companies wouldn't have to pay a licensing fee to install the software on a handset, which could lower the price of handhelds running an Android variant.
Another focus of Android is web browsing, which is no surprise coming from Google. "The fundamental problem with most phones today is they don't have full-power browsers," said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, Inc., on a conference call earlier today. "We've been taking our mobile services and use specialized engineering to get them on other devices. No longer. If you're using Android as your platform, you won't have to shoehorn your app onto the platform." Based on this and other statements, the Android platform will apparently feature a more desktop-like browsing experience. Google also hopes to deliver targeted ads to Android-powered handsets, although Andy Rubin, founder of Android, said "you won't see a completely ad-driven cell phone based on this platform." We'll see.
The first devices based on Android may appear as soon as the second half of 2008. Software Development Kits (SDKs), which are required for developers to write software for a specific platform, for Android are due out before the end of 2007.
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