Google has been working on Android for about a year now, so why is it being brought up now? Well, it was being developed, and there probably wasn't a whole lot to look at and talk about. A limited number of people had access to Android, but recently the world got a sneak preview of what is to come. In Barcelona Spain, at the Mobile World Conference, Google's Android had a coming-out party. We got to see multiple devices that were running Android and got some more information on this interesting OS.
Android runs off of Linux and is open source, so any person or company will be able to develop applications that will run on Android, unlike the iPhone, which can only run web applications. There's no need to have high end hardware in the cell phone either. When demonstrated, Android was able to run on anything from 200 MHz all the way to 1 GHz. Granted, the faster ones seem to run more advanced applications than the slower ones. This is an interesting aspect; they are looking at the whole market of cell phones, from the PDAs all the way down to the basic ones typically available for free with a cell phone contract.
What does it mean?
This will have a great impact on the whole cell phone industry, from the cell phones service providers to the manufacturers and the consumers. Cell phone providers have some great incentives to adopt the Google Android OS. They could implement it throughout their entire product. The basic cell phones could have the basic features, while the higher end models could have the video players and wireless networking. This would drastically cut down on support help for the providers. They would no longer need to have employees trained in how to troubleshoot 15 different cell phone operating systems. Testing new cell phones on their networks would become effortless and efficient. At a time when companies are trying to cut costs, this is a great way to do just that.
The cell phone manufacturers will love the cost savings that come with Android. Android will cost the manufacturers less than a pretty penny to use. Google is giving it away for free. While it might not seem like a lot of savings, they will either eliminate their programmers, who probably make quite a few pennies, or will no longer have to rely on other third parties, such as Palm or Microsoft, to license their operating systems. Even if they save $5 per cell phone, over the production of a few million devices, the savings pile up.
Consumers will gain a lot more usability than with most other cell phone operating systems. Some cell phone providers will hack and chop a phone's OS to pieces, sometimes removing features and creating a mess. Android will make it easier for users to get back any features that have been removed. And it will have the ability to add applications at will. Currently, cell phone users are held hostage by their providers for applications, paying upwards of $10 an application. Apple's iPhone has closed down any direct applications on the device.
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