Google unveils plans for Android mobile software platform
Google on Monday confirmed its long-awaited foray into the mobile phone business by announcing the Open Handset Alliance, a team of thirty three other leading technology and wireless companies who have agreed to share in Google's development of Android, a new open software platform aimed at bettering the user experience on today's mobile devices.
As part of the alliance, the companies will strive to develop technologies that will significantly lower the cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services. Android is said to be a first step in this direction, and represents software that has been under development for three years now, dating back to a Silicon Valley startup called Android Inc. that Google acquired in 2005. The platform is essentially an integrated mobile "software stack" that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and user applications.
Built on the open source Linux Kernel, Android was conceived from the ground-up to be "truly open" and allow developers to create mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer. For example, an application could call upon any of the phone's core functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera, allowing for richer and more cohesive experiences for users.
Meanwhile, users will be able to fully tailor their Android-based phone to their interests -- they can swap out the phone's homescreen, the style of the dialer, or any of the applications. They'll also be able to instruct their phones to use their favorite photo viewing application to handle the viewing of all photos.
"Today's announcement is more ambitious than any single 'Google Phone' that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks," said Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. "Our vision is that the powerful platform we're unveiling will power thousands of different phone models."
Mobile phone users should not expect the first phones based on Android to surface until the second half of 2008. However, developers interested in the platform will only have to wait a week or so before the alliance unleashes its Android SDK on Nov. 12th.
Handset manufacturers and wireless operators will be free to customize Android in order to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost, the alliance said. Meanwhile, developers will have complete access to handset capabilities and tools that will enable them to build more compelling and user-friendly services, bringing the Internet developer model to the mobile space.
"We see Android as an important part of our strategy of furthering Google's goal of providing access to information to users wherever they are. We recognize that many among the multitude of mobile users around the world do not and may never have an Android-based phone," said Andy Rubin, co-founder of Android Inc. and now Director of Mobile Platforms for Google. "Our goals must be independent of device or even platform. For this reason, Android will complement, but not replace, our longstanding mobile strategy of developing useful and compelling mobile services and driving adoption of these products through partnerships with handset manufacturers and mobile operators around the world."
Other big names listed as Open Handset Alliance members include Intel, Broadcom, eBay, HTC, Motorola, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung, Texas Instruments, and T-Mobile.
As part of the alliance, the companies will strive to develop technologies that will significantly lower the cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services. Android is said to be a first step in this direction, and represents software that has been under development for three years now, dating back to a Silicon Valley startup called Android Inc. that Google acquired in 2005. The platform is essentially an integrated mobile "software stack" that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and user applications.
Built on the open source Linux Kernel, Android was conceived from the ground-up to be "truly open" and allow developers to create mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer. For example, an application could call upon any of the phone's core functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera, allowing for richer and more cohesive experiences for users.
Meanwhile, users will be able to fully tailor their Android-based phone to their interests -- they can swap out the phone's homescreen, the style of the dialer, or any of the applications. They'll also be able to instruct their phones to use their favorite photo viewing application to handle the viewing of all photos.
"Today's announcement is more ambitious than any single 'Google Phone' that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks," said Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. "Our vision is that the powerful platform we're unveiling will power thousands of different phone models."
Mobile phone users should not expect the first phones based on Android to surface until the second half of 2008. However, developers interested in the platform will only have to wait a week or so before the alliance unleashes its Android SDK on Nov. 12th.
Handset manufacturers and wireless operators will be free to customize Android in order to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost, the alliance said. Meanwhile, developers will have complete access to handset capabilities and tools that will enable them to build more compelling and user-friendly services, bringing the Internet developer model to the mobile space.
"We see Android as an important part of our strategy of furthering Google's goal of providing access to information to users wherever they are. We recognize that many among the multitude of mobile users around the world do not and may never have an Android-based phone," said Andy Rubin, co-founder of Android Inc. and now Director of Mobile Platforms for Google. "Our goals must be independent of device or even platform. For this reason, Android will complement, but not replace, our longstanding mobile strategy of developing useful and compelling mobile services and driving adoption of these products through partnerships with handset manufacturers and mobile operators around the world."
Other big names listed as Open Handset Alliance members include Intel, Broadcom, eBay, HTC, Motorola, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung, Texas Instruments, and T-Mobile.
Comments
For starters, no Apple, no ATT, no Verizon, no Nokia, no Vodaphone, in the "OHA" alliance.
Hopefully this will be a success. I still plan to get an iPhone, but competition will mean better phones everywhere; from Apple, from phones using Android, and from competing companies with their own proprietary software.
no Apple, no ATT, no Verizon
You say that like it's a bad thing.
a step, possibly in the right direction. still too ambiguous to say.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Who controls the networks?
Unless Google gets some bandwidth from the upcoming Fed auction... you still have to try and get your Gphone to work on these guys networks. And I know Verizon, for one, will not go quietly if at all.
Who controls the networks?
Unless Google gets some bandwidth from the upcoming Fed auction... you still have to try and get your Gphone to work on these guys networks. And I know Verizon, for one, will not go quietly if at all.
I'd never use AT&T or Verizon and I'd never recommend either to anyone. T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel are in the Alliance, that's perfectly acceptable to me. More carriers in the US would be a good thing, but look what there is to choose from.
Not seeing Nokia or Sony-Ericsson on the list bothers me, though. LG and Samsung are both decent, but I'm really not a fan of Motorola phones whatsoever.
Why is it that all of the US-based companies that are involved with mobile phones have horrible products or services? It seems like Apple is one of the only exceptions, and just barely.
I guess its time to get rid of my old microsoft shares, do to the fact that google CEO seats on apples board of directors this new free platform must be good, these big companies are all really at war specially google & apple Vs microsoft and Universal
A better reason to dump MSFT is that they've been dead in the water for years.
Yawn.
For starters, no Apple, no ATT, no Verizon, no Nokia, no Vodaphone, in the "OHA" alliance.
An open platform which will get rid of WindowsCE (especially because of closed/licensing costs) and Verizon's idiotic lock-box, and the platform has a ridiculous number of partners at this stage in the game... and you find that boring.
You are ludicrously ignorant of what this means for the future of mobile handsets.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
These are -- for better or worse, like them or hate them -- some of the heavy-hitters in the mobile phone business (yes, Apple included).
It is a bit odd to go public with something supposedly so big -- witness how the stock had run up in anticipation of this announcement -- without lining up some of these major players.
You are ludicrously ignorant of what this means for the future of mobile handsets.
And you, I suppose, are a seer of the future in this industry.
OT: The embedded YouTube video in the article makes my MacBook fans go max speed. I am running Leopard. Does anyone else have that issue? Generally I found Flash performance to be much improved in Leopard.
You're right...that is off topic.
And you, I suppose, are a seer of the future in this industry.
No, I'm just saying that even a complete retard would be able to see why this is so huge for the future of mobile.
Google has written a software platform for mobile phones. Ok, cool.
We have no idea what it is, what it does, hot it looks, how it works, what phones it will work on, and how much Google there will be in a typical phone running Android (versus how much, say, T-Mobile). That's not cool at all.
It's a partnership announcement, like what MS keeps having us yawn about. We don't get to see a product for another year, and when we do, we have no idea what it will be like.
Best case scenario: it's excellent software, customizable (by the provider) in a tasteful way, guaranteeing a consistent, google-class experience.
Worst case scenario: it's good software, customizable to virtual unrecognazibility by the same people who have been delivering crappy phones all these years, guaranteeing pretty much the same kind of confusing, ugly, all-over-the-place, T-Mobile-class mobile phone experience we've had so far. Only it'll be more webby and it'll have ads.
The reason I'm leaning more toward the second option is that Google didn't say anything today that prevents or opposes it.
Meanwhile, Google developing apps for their own Linux flavor probably won't harm their ability to keep developing apps for Apple's UNIX flavor
Yawn.
For starters, no Apple, no ATT, no Verizon, no Nokia, no Vodaphone, in the "OHA" alliance.
These are -- for better or worse, like them or hate them -- some of the heavy-hitters in the mobile phone business (yes, Apple included).
It is a bit odd to go public with something supposedly so big -- witness how the stock had run up in anticipation of this announcement -- without lining up some of these major players.
I have a hard time believing heavy-hitters in the phone market would ever support this open platform (until the end, at least). Doing so now would spell the destruction of the empire they've built. What -- a world where useful and powerful phone services are free-of-charge? How dare we fathom such a thing?!
A revolution in the phone industry has to come from the smaller players, just as a revolution in the computer industry had to come from an underdog like Apple.
If these guys truly have a superior platform, its adoption will eventually take place, even though the big names will try with all their might to stymie it.
-Clive