Google announced Android, the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications for mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation. Android was developed in cooperation with the Open Handset Alliance, which consists of more than 30 technology and mobile leaders including Motorola, Qualcomm, HTC and T-Mobile. Phones based on the Android platform are targeted for release on the second half of 2008.
If you’re a developer and this approach sounds exciting the SDK might be available in a week or so.
Further digging at Open Handset Alliance
Android™ will deliver a complete set of software for mobile devices: an operating system, middleware and key mobile applications. Android will be open source, it is built on the open Linux Kernel. Furthermore, it utilizes a custom virtual machine that has been designed to optimize memory and hardware resources in a mobile environment. Android does not differentiate between the phone’s core applications and third-party applications. They can all be built to have equal access to a phone’s capabilities providing users with a broad spectrum of applications and services. Android provides access to a wide range of useful libraries and tools that can be used to build rich applications. It sounds like a dream come true for mobile developers but can it really deliver.
On November 12, theres an frist look release of the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) for developers. Is this what we mobile developers have been looking forward to?
