For anybody waiting for Google’s answer to the iPhone there was some news today, but it wasn’t a device being announced. Google “I’m more open than you” Inc. announced Android, an open platform for mobile devices to simplify application development.Android promises to complete what J2ME started, but more or less failed to deliver. Be a standard interface developers can use to create applications — reminds me a little of what BluePulse was attempting until they became a social network.
So is this cool? Well, yeah. It is. We can do a lot more with software for our phones, but development costs and proprietary APIs really hamper development of cool apps. If Android catches on it will seriously dent dev time, and that means more apps on more phones with more features.Google has a battle on its hands though. Sun is tight with the manufactures, and people like Apple, Nokia, Motorola and Samsung have massive investments in their systems and software. Google already have deals with HTC, so there should be plenty of hardware soon, just not sure enough to entice lots of app developers over. We’ll see.