Google, phone home

It's official: Google announces open-source mobile phone OS, Android

After days, weeks, months, almost a year, the rumors about a "Google phone" or "gPhone" can be put to rest. Beginning in December 2006, the Internet (and the "revered" blogosphere) went absolutely crazy buzzing about a possible Google endeavor to permeate the every day, away from computer market, and challenge the (then still rumored) iPhone. A true gPhone would've been great, and concept images showed just a portable screen that could do anything, be anything, look like anything, and most importantly, can search Google.

Sadly to some of us who dissed the iPhone and were anxiously awaiting a totally open source phone supported by the high and mighty Google (like...me), Google did not announce their own brand of phone. Instead, Google announced their own mobile operating system, the open-source platform called Android. It runs on Linux and will be available for free under the Apache software license.

This is significant because Google has set up the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of over 30 technology and mobile companies who will be supporting the new platform. With several carriers being part of the Alliance, it is likely that the consumers will benefit, receiving the new software on their own phones, as well as driving the carriers not taking part to either get on board or create their own software that can compete. One of the best features of Android is that it will be open for developers to create their own applications for via an SDK (software development kit) from Google.

Google may not have created the god of all cellphones, but this might even be better. Instead of creating one phone, Google has built a platform on which every phone can be built upon, along with the accessibility for any developer to create any applications they want for it. The possibilities for this are endless, as its possible that within the next five years, every mobile user could be on a unified platform which can open up a fantastic future for mobile systems, and possibly the first step towards what some writers have tagged as "Web 3.0," a truly mobile Internet.