What is Google Android?
The G1 is being touted as a direct competitor to the iPhone, and while I'm not sure it's quite there yet, it's only a matter of time before Android becomes a major player in the mobile market.
What is Android?
When Google announced Android late last year, the idea of a Google phone had been discussed so widely in the media that no-one was terribly surprised.
Most of the rumours centred around Google itself releasing a device, in direct competition to the recently-released iPhone. Instead, Google focused on the software, leaving existing device manufacturers to look after the hardware, and existing carriers to look after the customers.
Android differenciates itself in three ways: by being Linux-based, open, and built from the ground up around the constraints of mobile device. The GUI is entirely new and is designed to use minimal resources.
Even the way that software is run is designed to be efficient -- Android uses Java extensively, but instead of using a full Java virtual machine, the compiled Java bytecodes are converted in to a new format called Dalvik, which is easier to implement efficiently on embedded CPUs.
The main difference between Android and the iPhone is openness. While Apple limits what third-party applications can do on its device, Android makes no distinction between bundled apps and third-party apps -- every developer gets access to the same broad set of features.
Likewise, there's no App Store-style lock-in, with the Android Market, based on approved developers, rather than approved applications, with user voting to weed the poor applications from the good. It's entirely optional, too, so developers can distribute software directly if they want to.
Paranoid about Android
The G1, built by HTC and distributed in the US by T-Mobile, will be the first Android device on the market later this month, and while it's great to see Android hit the market, the G1 itself leaves me a bit cold.
In contrast to the elegance of the iPhone, with its unbroken touch-sensitive facade, the G1 looks very clunky, with not just a touch screen, but a scrollwheel and slide-out QWERTY keyboard as well.
The software, as well, seems a little half-baked. It's actually much more of a "Google phone" than I expected -- you need a Google account to do much at all with it, and while it has great support for GMail and Google Calendar, there's no way to simply sync your contacts or calendars with a desktop application. Even the video player is Google-centric, with full support for streaming video from YouTube, but no support for playing your own files.
Being so network-focused is an interesting angle in a consumer device, but it's a death knell for enterprise sales, where IT admins, including myself, are understandably reluctant to send sensitive corporate information in to the Google cloud.
Looking to the future
While the G1 might not be the device for me, I'll be surprised if I can't find an awesome Android device that fits my needs by the end of next year. HTC has released some very impressive Windows Mobile devices that could easily run Android.
It's not the only maker working on Android, either -- the Open Handset Alliance, the body overseeing Android development, also includes Samsung, Motorola, and LG, as well as chip-makers like Intel, Broadcom, and Marvell.
The software, too, is bound to improve. I expect to see third-party developers plugging a lot of the gaps in the Android feature set, and it's entirely likely that Google and the other Open Handset Alliance members will adopt the best apps and roll them in to the platform, along with new developments from their own hordes of programmers.
Android has barely hit version 1.0, and it can only get better from here.
Other Blog Entries written by Leigh Dyer:
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