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

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Introducing Android

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Android Dream Fullscreen demo 2

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Google IO Android QA Part 2

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Unlock Android Dream with your own pattern

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Android Demo

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Google IO 2008 Android QA part 1

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Android Dream has built-in compass for Google Streetview

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Android demo at Google IO

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Android Dream video live demo Intro and more

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The Android demo/presentation by Steve Horowitz

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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.