Google's Android work far from finished
As a wise man once noted, the waiting is the hardest part.
It's been nearly six months since Google sent ripples through the mobile phone industry with the announcement of its plans to develop Android, a Linux-based operating system. But after an initial splash, Google has been pretty quiet. So much so, in fact, that several representatives of companies within Google's Open Handset Alliance professed frustration at the ambiguity of some important details at the CTIA 2008 conference this week in Las Vegas.
Much is still up in the air, just a few months before the first phones are expected to arrive. Google has yet to make crucial decisions about the code base that will accompany Android; such as, which applications are required to make it an Android phone? How will that base be maintained into the future? And how much freedom will Android developers and partners really have to tweak the software?
Google is aiming high with Android. "Android has two goals: First, to be an excellent mobile platform on its merits, and second, to be open and open source," wrote Dan Morill, a Google engineer, on the Android Internals discussion board last week. But in this new world of advanced mobile computing, those goals can conflict.
The details of how Google chooses to release Android will make a huge impact on how it is received by the world. And Rich Miner knows it. Miner is in charge of Google's wireless business and along with Andy Rubin co-founded the original Android. He is presiding over a huge development project within Google, as the company works to develop a brand-new mobile operating system using the Linux kernel, code contributed by OHA members and internally developed code.
Much of the reason for Google's low profile since the November Android announcement is that the company wants to make sure it has everything nailed down before moving forward, Miner said in an interview this week. To date, it has released a software development kit, and is encouraging Android development with cash prizes.
Which applications will be included with Android, Google's first mobile operating system?
(Credit: Open Handset Alliance)
As of now, Google and its OHA partners have agreed on a basic set of parameters for Android, such as the screen resolution to be used and how the software will support various keypad styles like the classic 12-button phone or the BlackBerry-like QWERTY keyboard.
Beyond that, things are still very much in flux, although Miner points out that protracted debate is necessary to make sure all members of the OHA are happy with the final implementation.
"We've all lived through Java and similar initiatives where we've witnessed fragmentation, and it's a major goal to make sure we don't repeat mistakes we all have scars from in the past," Miner said.
Indeed, the need to avoid "fragmentation" came up multiple times in a 30-minute discussion with Miner. Carriers, handset makers, and chip developers clearly want a Linux-based mobile operating system that's pleasing to the eye and allows developers to build applications that can run across different phones. However, Android isn't the first attempt at this idea; it's more like the fifth.
The reason that many others have fallen aside is because a common platform was taken in dozens of different, incompatible directions. Miner was reminded of Sun, who used to hope that Java would be a "write once, run anywhere" tool that lets any application written for Java run on any device. Instead, different companies chose to implement Java in different ways, defeating some of the purpose.
Google, smartly, wants to avoid that. But avoiding fragmentation requires rules and regulations that might not seem so open.
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