Google's Android Era Set To Begin

When Google unveiled its Android mobile software platform last November, it was clear that the search giant had broader ambitions than just a Gphone. The Linux-based open source platform and the Google-backed Open Handset Alliance are seeking to merge the openness of the Internet with the mobile space. These lofty goals potentially make Android a major disruption in the mobile communications industry. However, multiple questions remain
One thing for certain, T-Mobile will officially announce the first Android-powered handset on Sept. 23. While details aren't official, FCC filings suggest the Dream (or G1) will sport a large touch screen that flips out to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard.
For Google, Android is all about getting mobile users on the Internet where the search company can use its expertise to provide a better user experience. The operating system is royalty-free so hardware manufacturers can potentially spend their money on better hardware or on research and development.
Additionally, Google wants to make it easier for mobile users to download and add applications to their mobile devices like they can on a PC. The open source nature will potentially allow others to improve the software, like with the desktop Linux.
Strategy Analytics predict the Android smartphone will capture 4% of the U.S. smartphone market in the fourth quarter. This represents about 400,000 units sold, and it is a healthy figure considering the handset's not expected to go on sale until the middle of the quarter.
According to Chris Ambrosio, executive director of Strategy Analytics, the Dream's price point will be an important factor of adoption, and The Wall Street Journal recently reported the first Android handset will debut for $199.
Ambrosio said there appears to be a large level of interest within the industry, but the mass-market appeal is currently lacking. That should change after T-Mobile's official announcement, as the carrier will probably put great efforts to market the first Android-powered handset.
Jason Spero, VP of marketing for AdMob, said there hasn't been a clear marketing push for Android. Despite recent crossover, Spero said the BlackBerry is primarily marketed as the best for the mobile workforce, and the iPhone is marketed as a consumer device.
"It's important for the group of people delivering Android devices to articulate a value proposition for a core audience," Spero said.
Despite this, analyst firm Gartner recently estimated Android will account for 10% of the smartphone market by 2011. But analysts said the first generation of devices may not capture the public's interest like an iPhone.
"The G1 is the first device coming to market supporting Google's operating system Android," said Roberta Cozza, Gartner's principal analyst, in a statement. "Although this will give us a taste of what the platform will be able to do, we are expecting some limitations given this is the first device."

Amazon to have iTunes-like app for Android

Android, Google's highly anticipated mobile phone software set to launch Tuesday, and Apple's iPhone have often been mentioned in the same breath, for features they may--or may not--have in common.

Add one more feature to the list, if a VentureBeat source is right: Amazon is said to have an iTunes-like application for Android. VentureBeat says it got a tip that an HTC phone running Android was spotted in a bar in the San Francisco Bay Area over the weekend and that it had such an Amazon application on it.

But, according to VentureBeat, the source said he believes there will be a key difference:

One thing you cannot yet do through the mobile iTunes store however is buy/rent movies or any other form of video. Our source believes that Amazon's app will allow for that.


The blog goes on to say that Amazon's store on Android is likely to be a mobile version of its MP3 online store

Google Android phone launch: Live blog at 7:30 a.m. PDT

To keep up with the news as it happens, check out CNET News where we'll be blogging live from the press conference held by T-Mobile at 10:30 a.m. EDT (7:30 a.m. PDT) in New York City.

T-Mobile USA will be the first mobile operator to offer a phone that uses the open-source Google Android operating system. The device made by HTC has been widely anticipated. And on Tuesday morning, T-Mobile and Google will finally unveil the phone, which is expected to go on sale in October.

I'll be at the event, live blogging the announcement with a host of other CNET folks. So make sure to follow all the action on the CNET News Wireless Blog and come back to CNET News later in the day for video and photos of the new device. CNET Reviews will also be posting a First Look of the device, and I'll be joined by Natali Del Conte of CNET TV, who will also share her initial thoughts on the big news.

In the face of increasing competition from Nokia and Google, mobile Linux group LiPS has merged with the LiMo Foundation

The Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum on Thursday announced it will roll is activities and members into the Linux Mobile Foundation (LiMo) in an attempt to create a stronger entity for pushing mobile Linux.

 

The groups hope the move will help bolster the mobile Linux developer community and increase the adoption of mobile devices in the face of increasing completion from open source competitors like Symbian and Android.

 

"LiPS Forum is proud of our standardization efforts, development activities and other achievements of the last three years," LiPS Forum president Haila Wang said in a statement. "Our membership agrees that LiPS's greatest impact can be realized by adding our members' expertise and resources to LiMo Foundation. Together, the member companies can better strive for a unified and ubiquitous Linux-based mobile platform."

 

The realignment is not completely unexpected because both groups have been working toward a similar goal. LiPS sought to create a formal standard for mobile Linux, while the LiMo Foundation wanted to create a Linux framework that can be quickly designed into a handset. Additionally, many members of LiPS, like Trolltech, MontaVista, and France Telecom, have already joined LiMo.

 

The move comes as mobile Linux faces increasing competition. On Tuesday, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) bought Symbian and said it would convert it into a free, open source operating system under the Symbian Foundation. This foundation features a broad range of partners, including Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson, Motorola (NYSE: MOT), AT&T (NYSE: T), and Samsung.

 

There also will be competition from the Linux-based Android operating system, which is being supported by companies like Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Broadcom (NSDQ: BRCM), and Sprint (NYSE: S). But, the LiMo Foundation should be the first to have handsets on the market, with the first wave expected within a few months.

Android gains traction or not in the face of a free Symbian may not matter

Nokia's decision to buy the rest of Symbian it didn't already own and set it free was supposed to help it better deal with competition from open-platform rivals such as Google ( NSDQ: GOOG) by attracting consumers with free software. But has Nokia's move done the exact opposite, giving its burgeoning rival in the mobile market a boost instead?

 

BusinessWeek argues that by helping nurture the mobile web and create demand for cell phone applications, Nokia's move has done just his. Sure, Google's mobile OS Android will get some stiff competition from Symbian, and maybe Android won't emerge as the dominant OS, but in the end, with an established mobile web, Google wins anyway?with the ads it sells.

 

With sales of ads via desktop search is slowing down, Google needs to increase usage on mobile devices. Analysts are predicting that Google could easily transfer its dominance on desktop search to mobile search, thanks to its strong brand presence with consumers, as early data has shown that mobile consumers are going to the mobile sites of their desktop favourites. So whether Android gains traction or not in the face of a free Symbian may not matter, just as long as Google locks in mobile search.

Android Vs iPhone

There are log of questions arise on Android as well as iPhone.

 

Did Android beats iPhone?

iPhone 3G phone which is expected to born on July 11 is very cheap , $199 /- So what is the future of Android phone

What are the application that supports android phone?

Is there any restriction in developing Android applications?

The new iPhone is cheap and sexy. What will be the features of Android phone to compete with this ?

When is the official launch of Android phones?

 

These kind of questions will arise in everyone’s mind before the official launch of Android.   

(*)The language gap: Android apps are built in Java, iPhone apps are built on Objective-C. One Android developer we talked to said that he would switch to the iPhone, but he doesn’t know Objective-C, and neither do any of the other developers at his company. Other Android developers who know the language don’t like it, saying that it doesn’t have the speed and flexibility of Java.

(*)The walled garden: Apple is tightly controlling what apps end up in its app store. It’s deciding which ones get prime virtual shelf space, and it will set rules about pricing, file size and content (no “Adult” games). On the flip side, Android is completely open -- there are virtually no requirements on what you can or can’t do with Android applications. On Android, the third-party apps have as much power as the phone's core applications, meaning you can build an app that will switch out the home screen, change the style of the dialer, etc.

(*)The money on the table: Google has already given away $1.25 million in first round of the first phase of the Android Developer Challenge. That means that there’s $8.75 million left on the table. The developers we heard from said that they’re busy working on the next round, and while they may think about the iPhone in the future, they’re concentrating on Android -- and the upfront case -- for now.

Whether Android save the mobile cost? if so who will save?

It was said that 20% of the mobile costs its software and its application . So after the releasing of Android OS , its expecting , the manufacture can save a good amount of money in the development of the application and the software.

So it is said that , the users can save approximately 20% of the cell cost by buying Android phone. The latest trend is that users can buy a cell of their choice and they can select the network which they want . So approximately , the estimated cost of cell worth $500, will be $400.  Watch and see the more update on Q4 this year.

HTC launching with Googles Android software

HTC’s general manager Kevin Chen gives a report stating that the Googles mobile OS Android will be used in the Q4 this year. He added that they can assume that this is much talked about HTC’ Dream. That’s not all as it seems we’ve got the first date on when Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 7 will go on sale. Statements made by Kevin Chen indicate that they will launch their Windows Mobile 7 device Q1 next year. 2009 is shaping up to be a big year with all of the major players strutting their platofrms. You can’t deny the impact the iPhone has made as smartphones are on their way on becoming the norm.  It’s likely we’ll see clones and knock-off devices for the foreseeable future.

Whether Android get delayed?

A big No from google. There were some media report that googles mobile software Android will be releasing only on 2009. Google denied !!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Street reported the delay, citing an unnamed source, but Google denied the report.

 

"We're still on track to announce Android-powered phones this year. Some of our partners are publicly stating that they plan to ship Android phones in the fourth quarter," Google said in a statement.

 

Speaking at the Google I/O conference late last week, Android leader Andy Rubin confirmed phones using the soon-to-be-mostly-open-source software will be "available in the second half of this year", while T-Mobile plans to ship an Android phone later in 2008, chief exec Hamid Akhavan said in February.

 

T-Mobile confirmed on Monday that its Android-based phone is still on track to arrive in the fourth quarter.

 

One source of possible Android confusion could be that although Google and various partners are collectively writing the Android software, Google isn't the only one supporting it.

 

Android software overseen by Google will appear in the first Android phones, but Android software overseen by partner Wind River Systems will appear in later models expected in the first quarter of 2009, said John Bruggeman, chief marketing officer of Linux seller and Android partner Wind River.

 

"They [Google] did the first phone. They carefully handheld it all the way through," Bruggeman said. "We've got the rest."

 

Wind River supports Linux in embedded computing devices but will support the full Android software "stack," which extends to higher-level software as well.

 

"When Android is open-sourced, we will support the entire stack," Bruggeman said. "We've ramped up our infrastructure. We are resourced to be able to support Android and not just Linux — the messaging and telephony and email and browsing."

Googles Mobile OS - Android mobile kit

In the second week of Feb 2008 , Google released its new mobile OS , Android mobile kit for developers , its an open development platform.

The new SDK has a new user interface, a geocoder that lets developers search for businesses as well as translate an address into a coordinate and vice versa, support for new media codecs, and code that lets developers create layout animations.

 

One thing missing is change to the telephony package, laments one developer on the Android Developer discussion on Google Groups.

 

"This is very disappointing, especially because we were told in the Android coding day in Israel that the telephony package will be updated soon," the developer wrote. "We still cannot detect the ingoing/outgoing call number or send DTMF tones properly." Prototypes of Android phones were shown at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday. Google launched Android in November along with the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 handset manufacturers, carriers and chipmakers that have said they plan to support Android products and services. Products are due out later this year.

AndroidT

Android™ will deliver a complete set of software for mobile devices: an operating system, middleware and key mobile applications. An early look at the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) is now available.

Open
Android was built from the ground-up to enable developers to create compelling mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer. It is built to be truly open. For example, an application could call upon any of the phone's core functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera, allowing developers to create richer and more cohesive experiences for users. Android is built on the open Linux Kernel. Furthermore, it utilizes a custom virtual machine that has been designed to optimize memory and hardware resources in a mobile environment. Android will be open source; it can be liberally extended to incorporate new cutting edge technologies as they emerge. The platform will continue to evolve as the developer community works together to build innovative mobile applications.

All applications are created equal
Android does not differentiate between the phone's core applications and third-party applications. They can all be built to have equal access to a phone's capabilities providing users with a broad spectrum of applications and services. With devices built on the Android Platform, users will be able to fully tailor the phone to their interests. They can swap out the phone's homescreen, the style of the dialer, or any of the applications. They can even instruct their phones to use their favorite photo viewing application to handle the viewing of all photos.

Breaking down application boundaries
Android breaks down the barriers to building new and innovative applications. For example, a developer can combine information from the web with data on an individual's mobile phone -- such as the user's contacts, calendar, or geographic location -- to provide a more relevant user experience. With Android, a developer could build an application that enables users to view the location of their friends and be alerted when they are in the vicinity giving them a chance to connect.

Fast & easy application development
Android provides access to a wide range of useful libraries and tools that can be used to build rich applications. For example, Android enables developers to obtain the location of the device, and allows devices to communicate with one another enabling rich peer-to-peer social applications. In addition, Android includes a full set of tools that have been built from the ground up alongside the platform providing developers with high productivity and deep insight into their applications.
Source : http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/android_overview.html

 

Google Android Demo

Videos

Introducing Android

Videos

Android Dream Fullscreen demo 2

Videos

Google IO Android QA Part 2

Videos

Unlock Android Dream with your own pattern

Videos

Android Demo

Videos

Google IO 2008 Android QA part 1

Videos

Android Dream has built-in compass for Google Streetview

Videos

Android demo at Google IO

Videos

Android Dream video live demo Intro and more

Videos

The Android demo/presentation by Steve Horowitz

Videos

Google showcases iPhone-like features on its mobile phone platform Android

Google has demonstrated the functionality and features of Android, an open and comprehensive mobile platform consisting of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications for mobile devices.

At a conference in US, the Android engineering team showed off the use of Google Maps Street View and a touch-screen interface with abilities known for their presence on Apple's iPhone.

The demonstrations also featured a central notification service that can display new email, missed phone calls, and calendar appointments; the ability to unlock the phone using a specific connect-the-dots swipe across the screen; and an option to put browser or contact list shortcuts on the Android desktop.

Google confirms Android phone software

Google has finally announced its open-source mobile phone software, Android.

Android, which comprises an operating system, middleware, a user-friendly interface and applications, should be available in phones in the second half of 2008.

Google has established the Open Handset Alliance to develop Android. The Alliance has 34 members including mobile operators such as T-Mobile and handset manufacturers such as HTC, Qualcomm and Motorola.

Notably, Nokia, AT&T and Verizon Wireless are not involved in the alliance.

Google hopes that Android will eventually power thousands of different phone models, including some Google branded handsets.

Android is based on a Java-over-Linux platform, which is much faster than existing Java for mobile technology.

Google is planning the imminent launch of a full software development kit for Java developers, which will enable the creation of third-party applications.

Android is expected to provide location-based advertising and mapping services through the use of both GPS and triangulation.

A VoIP component is not likely to be included.

Google Android Phone Prototype

When Google announced Android, their mobile phone operating system, they promised that phones using the Android system will be commercially available next year. Somehow, still in 2007, Gizmodo got there hands on a photo showing a prototype phone running on Android, doing nothing.

The prototype of the phone looks to be a bit bulky (or whoever holds the phone has a small hand, or perhaps, the photo was photoshopped - the reflections are all wrong). OO0CYST0OO on Gizmodo said, “THIS IS ONE UGLY BEAST.”

Google's Android platform could complicate security

Before it makes its first call or pings its first email, Google's Android platform is already turning heads -- and raising security issues.

Computer security firm F-Secure wrote in its blog that Google's openness with the platform could be its undoing.

"If unsigned and unknown applications written by anyone have full access to phone features, we smell trouble," wrote Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer at F-Secure.

Hyppönen noted one statement in particular from Android's homepage: "…an application could call upon any of the phone's core functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera...."

Google has created a page detailing Android security measures, which are largely install-time and permissions based, but the true test will not occur until the first Android phones hit the market and reach a critical mass.

Whether the Gphone or Android platform will make a big splash in the market is not a sure thing, experts said. Google is an outside player trying to overturn the current models of entrenched mobility giants on their home turf.

Francis Sideco, senior analyst at iSuppli, said any estimates of Android's future market share at this point are pure conjecture.

"Until we know what products come out of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) and where those companies are targeting initially, we're not even going to be able to guess," he said.

Sideco said the release of the iPhone opened up a window for Google to convince carriers and manufacturers to come to the table and build a competitor. If the platform is successful, he said, it could provide "a potential opportunity to build an ecosystem or development environment they can use to address the iPhone challenge."

Sideco added that the current OHA members appear likely to create a consumer-oriented phone rather than an enterprise- or executive-oriented device. Even if that holds true, enterprise IT departments are still likely to find themselves dealing with the devices soon after their launch.

"For more and more of these employees, there's a blurring of the lines between their business life and their personal life," Sideco said. "So if the Android platform helps that melding be more efficient ... where you can do both personal and enterprise type of work, that could really drive adoption."

Several factors will play into Android's potential enterprise adoption. One will be how easy it is to integrate with current policies. Sideco said smartphones were much more welcome into the corporate sphere once remote deletion capabilities allowed IT departments to wipe lost phones of confidential or proprietary data.

Another factor that could affect Google's smartphone success, Sideco said, is how "technology forward" the individual companies are.

"How much confidence do they have in their IT department to secure data in that device?" he said. He added that Android phones might avoid the stigma iPhones face in corporate IT departments if models are designed specifically for the enterprise markets rather than with the strong consumer focus the iPhone had, with its main features being music, video, Web browsing and other mobile entertainment functions.

If and when Android phones develop a sizable market, security issues will probably become a major focus. To help ease these concerns, Android developers might do well to follow familiar paradigms when possible.

Marc Kirstein, president of MultiMedia Intelligence, said VPNs could go a long way in comforting uneasy IT departments.

"The IT department is going to be in effect quarantining the Gphone," he said.

Rick Sizemore, chief strategy officer with MultiMedia Intelligence, said concerns with the Android platform are legitimate, but not unprecedented.

"Any new platform that is different from what [IT departments] are used to [is met with caution]," Sizemore said. "They were leery when BlackBerrys came out. There were a few problems; but overall, they learned to adapt to it."

The bottom line, Sizemore said, is that IT departments are paranoid for a reason: They are chronically under-funded and under-manned, and when the network goes down or glitches occur, they come under a microscope.

Sizemore agrees with Sideco that the Android could definitely work its way into the enterprise as personal users bring it in and intermix personal and professional lives. Problems could really occur if the phones try to access those corporate networks -- for example, by logging into a wireless network.

Regardless of the concerns, Kirstein said, Gphone and the Android platform will probably offer a few "killer applications," and Android-based phones could be the next big thing in both personal and professional circles when they are first released in the second half of 2008.

Google Android Phones in the Workplace

Ben Worthen raises good points in his post at the Wall Street Journal on why the Google phone is "A Business-Tech Nightmare Waiting to Happen." The basic gist is:

Here’s the first thing that will happen when a phone with Google’s operating system hits the market: Information-technology departments will ban employees from connecting phones that run Google’s operating system to their computers or the corporate network. The reason is that Google’s operating system is open, meaning anyone can write software for it. That includes bad guys, who will doubtlessly develop viruses and other malicious code for these phones, which unsuspecting Google phones owners will download. Employees could spread the malicious code to the rest of the company when they synch their phones to their computers or use it to check email.

I'm sure the Android platform will be a tempting target for malware writers but I'm less pessimistic about the general IT response. After all, Android should be a tempting market for anti-malware vendors, too.

For starters, the desktop anti-virus market is relatively mature. Traditional AV vendors are moving into data loss prevention, risk management, encryption, and asset management to stay viable. When Google releases the Android software next week, you can bet the AV developers will be downloading the code just as fast as the hackers.

What is less clear is how the AV vendors will make money on this. Will they go for some form of the traditional shrink-wrapped software that users will have to install? I doubt it. This is an ideal scenario for a software as a service model. If the companies can make they switch, they may find that taking a cut of the advertising revenue makes more sense.

And as for the conventional wisdom that Linux doesn't have malware, we only need to remember the first Internet worm (aka the Morris Worm) was written for Unix. There will be vulnerabilities in the platform and attackers will take advantage of them. There will also be vulnerabilities in applications. Just look at how fast OpenSocial apps were hacked. Here are some comments found in the code of the hacked application:

HTC Android Phones in 2008

HTC CEO Peter Chou who spoke to foreign investors in Taiwan last week confirmed that the company is getting ready to launch two or three new Android-based handsets in 2008.

It would be launching a 3G phone in the near future that did not use the Qualcomm-based chipset. The current TouchFlo technology seen on such phones as Sprint's HTC Touch wasn't necessarily the greatest—anyone with any iPhone experience would find it unresponsive, says I—and HTC will be introducing a new touch UI technology in 2008. As far as the WiMax rollout goes, HTC would release a WiMax/TD-WCDMA mobile phone either by the end of 2008 or beginning of 2009.

Florian Seiche, HTC's European vice president, said that the company's goal was to provide a "broad portfolio" of devices targeting various segments of the market, from consumer to enterprise. Android devices, he said, would fall squarely into the relatively new consumer side of HTC's business, targeted this year with the Touch phone.

Android is a new open source mobile OS developed by a group called the Open Handset Alliance, which includes members like Google, Motorola, HTC, Sprint Nextel and many more.

HTC CEO Peter Chou also said that HTC will introduce a more advanced user interface than its current TouchFlo next year and launch WiMAX devices by the end of 2008.

Wistron Shows Google Android Phone

PC Magazine plays with a phone that may become the first Android phone. The GW4 from Wistron will be running the Android software by March – which could make it the first – though the version described runs MontaVista Linux. "The GW4 we saw had surprisingly low specs, but that's a testament to the efficiency of Linux, Wistron execs said. The GW4 is based on a TI OMAP 1710 chipset with a 216-MHz processor and only 64 MB of program memory, yet the model we saw ran the Opera Web browser, played video and flipped between a range of Web widget applications like weather and stocks. The user interface was very responsive."

Verizon Wireless Will Support Android

How Verizon Wireless learned to stop worrying and love open access. Step one: Realizing it's a way to add low-cost customers
In yet another sudden shift, Verizon Wireless plans to support Google's (GOOG) new software platform for cell phones and other mobile devices. Verizon Wireless had been one of several large cellular carriers withholding support from the Android initiative Google launched in early November.

But given the stunning U-turn Verizon Wireless made Nov. 27, announcing plans to allow a broader range of devices and services on its network, Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam says it now makes sense to get behind Android. "We're planning on using Android," McAdam tells BusinessWeek. "Android is an enabler of what we do."

Will Android Debut in February 2008?

Sure, this prototype picture of an Android phone “in the wild” is a site for sore eyes, but if there’s anything that Android will teach us in 2008 it’s that what’s ON the phone is what really counts.
This cell phone clunker looks like it has been pieced together by HTC, a member of the Open Handset Alliance and primary manufacturer of devices carrying the Windows Mobile platform. And while this phone is… how shall we say it… obnoxiously ugly - don’t fret. It’s designed to give phandroids simple hardware with which to test the platform before it is released to the public. You can expect the first releases carrying Android to be as slick as ever, although it’s anyone’s guess whose phone or what phone will be the first.

A likely time for Android’s physical debut would be February 11-14 in Barcelona. This is the gathering of the Mobile World Congress, the largest event in the world for the mobile industry. Last year, an estimated 52,000 gathered in Barcelona. Google has 2 floor booths at the expo and we’re guessing they’ll be flaunting loaded up Android phones to impress the mobile world.

So if you LOVE the mobile world and are truly a phandroid, you’re in luck. Because this Valentine’s Day you’ll likely be getting a ton of news about Android!