Google Announces Android, an Open Source Operating System for Smartphones

[Antoine Wright]

I'm not clear on this. Is this a Smartphone OS competing with WinMob, Palm, Symbian? Or will this be an OS for highly featured dumbphones?

Its not an OS, its a platform. The OS side of it competes with WM/PalmOS/Symbian/other Linux offereings.

The platform side of that works (will work) with web services, data devices, etc. Bascially, Google is taking their services to mobile devices, and giving a means to customize the heck out of doing so whether you are user, carrier, or manufacturer.

The key for this working is that customizations don't go so far that you do end up with *just another OS* and you actually get things that work.

[tmarks11]

Its not an OS, its a platform.

That is a confusing statement, since the press release said "Google has officially announced Android, an operating system for mobile devices".

So how can goggle put together an OS in 6 months, when Palm, who has been working on their linux based OS for about 3 years still has another 18 months to go? Maybe Palm will punt and adopt android.

[Ed Hardy]

Is this a Smartphone OS competing with WinMob, Palm, Symbian? Or will this be an OS for highly featured dumbphones?

Possibly the biggest differentiator between the different types of smartphones is their attitudes toward third-party applications:

• Dumb Phones: Generally no support
• Feature Phones: Support for running Java apps, but it's not really encouraged
• Smartphones: Actively encourage developers to create applications and users to install them.

This makes Android an OS for smartphones.
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[Ed Hardy]

So how can goggle put together an OS in 6 months, when Palm, who has been working on their linux based OS for about 3 years still has another 18 months to go?

Google and the Open Handset Alliance are not going to start work on Android today; like Palm OS II, its development has already been going on for years.

Wondering where the name for this OS came from? Way back in 2005, Google purchased a company called Android for its talent at creating software for smartphones, including Andy Rubin the founder of Danger, Inc., maker of the T-Mobile Sidekick.

Development on the OS has proceeded ever since then, and Google has been showing off working prototypes of devices running Android for months.
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[Magellan]

Wasn't Symbian also a consortium of sorts? What companies are left in that one? I think Nokia, Sony-Ericsson and Motorola were the big ones.

[Ed Hardy]

Maybe Palm will punt and adopt android.

Palm said today it's not going to join Google's Open Handset Alliance because it prefers to create its own Linux-based operating system that allows it to, it its own words, "tightly integrate the software platform with our hardware design, which we believe gives us an advantage in delivering a great user experience."

In short, Palm is developing Palm OS II to meet its own particular needs, while Android is going to have to meet the needs of a broad coalition of companies.
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[rdevet]

Palm needs to jump on board immediately!

[Toe]

Another day, another Linux mobile platform vendor. Let's see, we've got...

Android
Access Linux Platform
ARM Linux Mobile Platform
CE Linux
Gnome Mobile
LiMo Foundation
Linux Foundation's Mobile Linux Initiative
LiPS
Mobile Linux Internet Project
Open Mobile Alliance
OpenMoko
Palm OS II
Qtopia
Ubuntu Mobile

And lord knows how many I've forgotten...

[Antoine Wright]

That is a confusing statement, since the press release said "Google has officially announced Android, an operating system for mobile devices".

So how can goggle put together an OS in 6 months, when Palm, who has been working on their linux based OS for about 3 years still has another 18 months to go? Maybe Palm will punt and adopt android.

From the press release you quoted:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.; BONN, Germany; TAOYUAN, Taiwan; SAN DIEGO, Calif.; SCHAUMBERG, Ill., November 5, 2007 -- A broad alliance of leading technology and wireless companies today joined forces to announce the development of Android, the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices...

Its not just an OS, its the services and channels that go along with it, along with a means to monetize several layers of information.

As for Google, they cracked $700/share last week. They have a ton more people and resources than Palm. What they can do in months might just be astounding if they ran 100% towards it.

That being said, they have been at it a long time. Considering Hawkins comments about the Foleo in April/May, the WR partnership, WR being a part of the Open Alliance, and the time lines of both Palm's device and any using Andrioid, it is very possible that Foleo 2/Treo Next will be driven by this. The pieces only make too much sense IMO.

EDIT: my mistake. I have up on my screen the Open Alliance press release, not the Android release.

[midtoad]

I guess we should prepare ourselves for their next WNDWS MBLE device.

No, Microsoft has already announced its competing product offering to Android. Working with a very small group of tight-lipped partners, Microsoft has already chosen the working name for its product: Paranoid.