1.1. Why Android?

Google's Android mobile phone software platform may be the next big opportunity for application software developers.

Google announced the Open Handset Alliance and the Android platform in November of 2007, releasing the first beta version of the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) at the same time. Within a matter of a few months, over 1 million people had downloaded versions of the SDK from Google's website. In the United States, T-Mobile announced the G1 Android mobile phone in October of 2008, and estimates are that several hundred thousand G1s were sold before the end of that year. There are already several competing mobile phone software stacks in the market, so why is there such interest in Android?

Android has the potential for removing the barriers to success in the development and sale of a new generation of mobile phone application software. Just as the the standardized PC and Macintosh platforms created markets for desktop and server software, Android, by providing a standard mobile phone application environment, will create a market for mobile applications—and the opportunity for applications developers to profit from those applications.

Why hasn't it been profitable to develop mobile applications for smartphones until now? And what are the problems that Android alleviates?

Fragmentation

About 70 million smartphones were sold in 2007, so there are a lot of phones available to run applications, but each brand has a different application environment. This is particularly true of Linux-based phones, where each handset vendor has had to assemble scores of pieces of third-party software to create a viable mobile phone platform. There is no chance that they would all choose the same components to build a mobile smartphone.

Java was supposed to help this situation, with J2ME and the wireless Java recommendations (CDC, CLDC, MIDP, JTWI, MSA, etc.) providing a common applications environment across handsets. Unfortunately, almost every handset that supports J2ME also support vendor-proprietary extensions that limit the portability of applications.

Proprietary software stacks

Most existing smartphones use proprietary, relatively closed software stacks, such as Nokia's Series 60 with the Symbian operating system, or Microsoft's Windows Mobile. Modifications to these stacks (adding a driver, for example) have to be done either by the stack owner or by the handset manufacturer. The stacks are not open source, so changing anything in the stack is difficult at best. Most Linux-based phones to date have an open source kernel (as required by the GPL license), but keep other details of the software stack (application framework, multimedia framework, applications) proprietary.

Closed networks

Series 60 and Windows Mobile do allow the addition of third-party applications, but mobile operators often lock the handsets so applications cannot be added. The operators claim this is needed to preserve the integrity of their mobile networks, making sure that viruses and spam are not inadvertently installed by end users. It also suits the operator's business model, because their mobile phone customers are confined to the operators' "walled garden" of applications, both on the phone and in the network. Android includes an open catalog of applications, Android Market, that users can download over the air to their Android phones. It also allows direct loading of applications via USB connection.

Android gives developers a way to develop unique, creative applications and get those applications in the hands of customers. Hundreds of thousands of Android mobile phone users are already there, looking for the next clever or useful application, and that application could be yours.