Android !!

Get used to the word … you’re apt to hear it often. Android is open source operating system and software for mobile phones. Android was developed by more than 30 technology and mobile companies who united to form a group called Open Handset Alliance; members include giants such as Google, T-Mobile, Sprint, Motorola and eBay. Their goal is to accelerate innovation in mobile technology and offer consumers a better and less expensive mobile experience. They intend to accomplish this by providing an open, complete, and free platform created specifically for mobile devices.

On Oct 22, 2008, Google and T-Mobile USA, Inc announced national availability of the T-Mobile G1, the first Android-powered mobile phone. The marriage of Google and T-Mobile ensure that beloved Google products like one-touch search, maps, Gmail, Calendar and YouTube and more are well represented in this phone. On its website, T-Mobile brags that T-Mobile G1 is “Everything you love about the web, now on a phone.” But wait, isn’t that what we heard just a few months ago about the iPhone? Can the T-Mobile G1 go head-to-head with its muscular competitor, the iPhone 3G, released last July? They do share some similarities, including:

• WebKit-based browser and touch-screen interface

• accelerometer, to change view from portrait to landscape

• multiple apps

• wireless

• 3G broadband

• support for multi-megapixel photos and music

• no video support

So what’s different? According to Lance Ulanoff, PC Magazine, these differences keep the iPhone at the head of the pack:

• G1 has a keyboard; iPhone does not

• G1 has a dedicated search button; iPhone has barely any physical buttons

• iPhone supports Microsoft Exchange server; G1 does not

• G1 is built on an open-source; iPhone has an applications development platform, but Apple tightly controls what people can deliver through its App Store

If that’s not enough of a head start, in its 4Q earnings report, Apple announced that it sold 6.9 million iPhones in just two months. And, while the T-Mobile G1 offers more than 50 applications for download, the iPhone App Store offers ten times that many.

However, here’s the kicker that has technologists buzzing: Google’s Android Market. Beginning today (October 27, 2008) any developer, anywhere, will be able to register and upload applications which will be available for free. Early next year, developers will also be able to distribute paid apps in addition to free ones. Developers’ appetites have already been whetted; Google ‘s Android Developer Challenge supplied $10 million for mobile apps built on the Android platform.

It will be fun to watch the race of the iPhone and the Androids. With more than 3 billion mobile phone users on the planet, there’s great incentive to be the first across the finish line!