Google’s announcement regarding the Android linux-based mobile operating system is the best news I’ve heard to date this year. With all of the hype about a gphone launch, I was beginning to worry that it would be another proprietary, branded handset that would continue the reign of cellular carriers over our handsets.
However, that scenario was fairly unlikely. When Google moves into a new market, they tend to adopt strategies that disrupt an industry. Adsense digs deep into the long tail of the individual as publisher while at the same time cutting out the need for Madison Avenue ad agencies. Google Maps allows free access into the very closed world of mapping and directions.
Android should allow the developer community to create applications without paying carriers for digital certificates to access services on the handset. This means that we can install and run any application that we choose. This increase in application choice should also be linked with greater access for developers to features such as location based services on the phone.
And the winner in all of this? Consumers. Yep, you and me.
The one problem with this great shift in power in the mobile space is that it will take time. The handset makers will need to write the hardware and radio drivers. The developer community will need time to create applications. What I hope this spurns though, is the developer community tailoring Android for existing handsets. The HTC Wizard (aka T-Mobile MDA, Cingular 8125, of the K-Jam) is likely the most hacked phone on the planet because of the Windows Mobile SDK. Hopefully we’ll see developers taking action to create an Android image for the Wizard and developing radio packages for the major carriers.
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I'm Dave and I like to share news about gadgets, gear, careers and design for a mobile world.
theregoesdave
Hope so, I have an MDA and getting Android on it is the only thing stopping me from upgrading to an AT&T Tilt (…well than that the $500 it would take to get an unlocked Tilt I could use w/ my Tmob service).
I haven’t found anyone that’s working on it so far. There’s a group out there working on the Dell Axim which is another Windows Mobile Device. Isn’t the Tilt having problems with the tilting mechanism? I’m waiting for the Kaiser to come down in price for the qwerty gps combo!
[...] let’s take a look at how far each has come in the last year since I pleaded with Google to open source my phone. We’ll also compare the advantages and disadvantages of their [...]