ACM TechNews
Google's Open Source Android OS Will Free the Wireless Web
Wired (07/08) Vol. 16, No. 7, P. 135; Roth, Daniel
Google's Android operating system is an open source mobile platform, which
any programmer can write for and any handset maker can install, and is
expected to hit the market this fall. Nearly any new phone will be able to
run Android, and several phone manufacturers have dedicated Android phones
on the way. However, the Android operating system is only a start as
Android-based phones will continue to evolve as users add applications from
independent developers to take advantage of the seamless Web access it
enables. Android is a fully customizable system that allows any
application to be removed or swapped for another. Software normally
accounts for about 20 percent of the cost of a phone, so by providing
Android to mobile carriers for free, Google is making possible lower-priced
handsets in an effort to get more consumers interested in using smart
phones. Android has even been designed to account for the limits of the
carriers' networks to avoid using too much data, giving the users a solid
experience without wasting the wireless spectrum. Android could possibly
turn the phone into a useful tool for Web surfing and cloud computing, with
voice functions such as phone calls simply being another application.
Wireless developers say Android jumps the barely 0.5 mobile world to Web
2.0, but caution that poorly designed Android phones or lack of access to
wireless networks could derail the technology. So far, Google's Open
Handset Alliance has attracted only Sprint and T-Mobile, but the company is
working to lure other carriers by providing mobile advertising. "We've
learned from computers that it's really nice to have complete connectivity,
to be able to connect anything in a kind of open way," says Google's Larry
Page. "For a lot of people and a lot of the time during your life, the
phone is your main computing platform. We look at those technologies and
say, Wow, we could do a whole lot more."
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/16-07/ff_android
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