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Google Announces "Open Phone" Coalition, No gPhone [Updated]
Ponca City, We Love You writes "USA Today has an advance story on Google's plans to announce a new operating system, geared specifically for cellphones with partners that include Sprint, Motorola, Samsung and Japanese wireless giant NTT DoCoMo. Although details won't be released until later today the new G-system will be based on Linux overlaid with Java and Google hopes to have a branded device ready for worldwide shipment by spring. Mobile Web browsing is notoriously slow and Google plans to change that by providing easy access to the Internet at PC-type speeds. Google plans to basically give away the software developer tools, used by programmers to write new applications. "If you're a developer, you'll be able to develop (applications) for the new Google Phone very quickly," said Morgan Gillis of the LiMo Foundation. AT&T and Verizon Wireless are noticeably absent from the coalition not wanting to support a device that favors Google over other providers. Sprint, the No. 3 carrier, supports the coalition, but it hasn't formally agreed to make the Google Phone available to its 54 million subscribers." Update 1727 GMT by SM: It's official, Google is releasing the mobile "Android" OS in place of the Google branded mobile phone that many expected.
It isn't necessarily clear from a consumer's perspective why this is advantageous (I suspect we'll have to wait to see an actual product first).
.. the partners are the companies that sell the phones, not make them. Which makes me suspect is seen as a good thing by the companies, as it allows them to tailor (i.e. control/limit use) services that they want. This can give them faster launch time for services, and a better way to annoy their users.
However, there are some big benefits to both Google and the phone companies. For google, they get one step closer to world domination. They get a relationship with the phone companies, and the get to build a solid foundation for mobile devices (which will eventually cover more than just cell phones).
From the article, it sounds like they are planning on creating interfaces for their services. Like many of their services, part of the benefit they get is by simple collecting data on you. I wonder if they'll stick to web based (+Google Gears), or whether they'll make Java interfaces.
I suspect that they'll also create a new interface for Java (something along the lines of GWT, that uses native widgets). This might be a big boon to the cell phone companies which then only have to implement the specifics of the interface per new hardware device. I don't have a strong love of Java, but it's not a bad choice for mobile platforms -- especially considering there are chips have a hardware implementation of the JVM.
So the phone companies get: (1) software tools (Google doesn't have a long history of releasing development tools -- at least publicly, so it will be interesting to see how it actually fairs), (2) fast development of software with little to no licensing fees (OS, web browser, maps program, notepad?, etc.)
Also, an important note
Again, no big win obvious for the consumer. However, I think in the end it will be seen by how good the interface is, how good the developer tools, and how things work together. The thing is, and a lot of people seem to forget this, is that phones are much more than just their specs. If the interface sucks, it doesn't matter the hardware, or what OS it's running. Likewise, if either the OS or hardware suck, you're equally screwed.
It will be interesting to see how OpenMoko fairs. I was a Linux user for a very long time. I remember when both KDE and GTK+ started off (and remember Enlightenment anyone?). I am therefore a bit skeptical when it comes to open source interfaces. Considering that they were developed by people on their free time for no money, they are great accomplishments. And at least the last time I used Linux and Windows at the same time (before XP), I could at least say that I preferred their interfaces over Windows any day.
HOWEVER, one of the big issues I observed was the inability to really create new ideas. The window managers seemed to always be a hybrid between Windows and OS X. I think a big reason for that is that innovation of that kind is really hard to do. It's hard because you have to come up with new ideas, and then you have to convince a bunch of people working on the same project that your idea makes sense. In large group projects, unless there is a clear leader, I think often the design ends up being a compromise between people. Which can make for robust interfaces, but not new.
Which is to say, I will be (happily) surprised if OpenMoko ends up giving new that other phone don't have. Google has the advantage of having large resources to throw at the problem, clear leadership on the interface issues, and a lot of people to help innovate. Of course, this still doesn't guarantee anything, but it is a long winded answer to why this is different.
Try putting Opera Mini on it.
Much faster.
1. it didnt use AWT. instead they create yet another windowing toolkit specifically for micro devices. i dont understand why it was essentially a copy of awt.
Why would you want the horrible, horrible AWT on a mobile ?
2. it didnt allow use of floats/doubles.
It does now, and has for ages. CLDC 1.0 doesn't support floats, CLDC 1.1 does.
It's not that Sun is depreciating JavaME. But that JavaME and JavaSE will merge. More detail on this from James Golsing's blog entry.
Here is the actual Open Handset Alliance Website describing Android. Third party developers will have access to all the hardware capabilities and software libraries that the Google software has access to. So developers can do anything that the phone is technically capable of. I imagine it will be fairly easy for end users to load new software onto the phone.
From the video, it sounds like it's going to run X11, Gtk, Python, and all that good stuff.
Keep in mind that the quote about favoring Google applications and services is from the LiMo foundation, which is trying to produce their own Linux-based cellphone platform. The Open Handset Alliance claims the exact opposite: "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."
Now please give us an android update ROM for your previous phones (universal, blueangel etc.) so we can all rid ourselves of the brain-leakingly-bad windows mobile.
Bonus quote of the day
Did anyone watch the http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gphone/googles-android-team-introduces-the-gphone-318878.php?autoplay=truedev movie?
I quote
To run X, To run GTK, To run a bunch of Unix command line software. I'm sure there's a good 5 people out there who read Slashdot who'll be all over thatSlashdot - we're in your phonez, and they know it!