| Android | |
 |
|
| Website | http://openhandsetalliance.com http://code.google.com/android/ |
|---|---|
| Company/ developer |
Open Handset Alliance |
| Marketing target | mobile phones |
| License | Apache license |
Android is a mobile phone platform based on the Linux operating system and developed by the Open Handset Alliance.[1] The unveiling of the Android platform on 5 November 2007 was announced with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 hardware, software and telecoms companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices.[2] When released in 2008, most of the Android platform will be made available under the Apache v2 open-source license.[3]
Contents |
History
Google acquires Android Inc.
In July 2005, Google acquired Android Inc., a small startup company based in Palo Alto, CA.[4] Android's co-founders who went to work at Google included Andy Rubin (co-founder of Danger), Rich Miner (co-founder of Wildfire), Nick Sears (once VP at T-Mobile), and Chris White (one of the first engineers at WebTV). At the time, little was known about the functions of Android Inc. other than they made software for mobile phones.[4] This began rumors that Google was planning to enter the mobile phone market, although it was unclear at the time what function they might perform in that market. At Google, the team, led by Rubin, had developed a Linux-based mobile device OS which they were marketing to handset makers and carriers on the premise of providing a flexible, upgradeable system. It was reported that Google had already lined up a series of hardware component and software partners and signaled to carriers that it was open to various degrees of cooperation on their part.[5][6][7] In December 2006, speculation that Google would be entering the mobile phone market began to grow once again.[8] Reports from both the BBC and The Wall Street Journal noting that Google wanted "Google search and Google applications on mobile, and it is working hard every day to deliver that." Print and online media outlets soon began reporting rumors that Google was developing a Google-branded handset.[9] More speculation followed reporting that as Google was defining technical specifications, they were showing prototypes to cellphone manufacturers and network operators. As many as 30 prototype phones are reported to be operating "in the wild".[10] Network World reported that Google’s phone was actually an open source software phone operating system, rather than a specific hardware device like the iPhone.[10] Phoronix had reported that Google was looking to team up on the GPhone with OpenMoko,[11] a project to create a smartphone platform using free software, including the Linux kernel.
Patents filed
In September 2007, InformationWeek covered an Evalueserve study reporting that Google has filed several patent applications in the area of mobile telephony, hinting at the arrival of the gPhone in the (then) near future.[12][13] Some of the notable U.S. patents and patent applications filed by Google in the area of mobile telephony were as follows:[12]
- U.S. Patent 6,785,566: Cellular Telephone Case
- U.S. Patent 6,982,945: Baseband Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Transceiver
- U.S. Patent 6,829,289: Application of a Pseudo-randomly Shuffled Hadamard Function in a Wireless CDMA System
- U.S. Patent 20,070,067,329: Overloaded Communication Session
- U.S. Patent 20,070,159,522: Image-based Contextual Advertisement Method and Branded Barcodes
- U.S. Patent 20,060,004,627: Advertisements for Devices with Call Functionality Such as Mobile Phones
- U.S. Patent 20,050,185,060: Image Base Inquiry System for Search Engines for Mobile Telephones with Integrated Cameras
- U.S. Patent 20,070,066,364: Customized Data Retrieval Applications for Mobile Devices Providing Interpretation of Markup Language Data
Google applied for a patent for a mobile payment system to complement its plans to launch what was thought to be a Google phone.[7][14] Known as GPay,[15] it covered a system that would let the user send a text message to Google giving the details of a payment to a specified recipient. GPay would then debit the user's bank account, crediting the money to the payee. This patent is expected to be banned due to previous art[16] publicly available earlier on the internet and also due to the troubles it could cause granting Google the rights to effectively block competition and take a monopolic position in the market.
Open Handset Alliance founded
| "Today's announcement is more ambitious than any single 'Google Phone' that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks. Our vision is that the powerful platform we're unveiling will power thousands of different phone models." -Eric Schmidt, Google Chairman/CEO[17] |
On 5 November, 2007, the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of several companies which include Google, HTC, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, and NVIDIA, was unveiled with the goal to develop open standards for mobile devices.[1] Along with the formation of the Open Handset Alliance, the OHA also unveiled their first product, Android, an open source mobile phone platform based on the Linux operating system.[1] Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt took a moment in the official press release to dispel all previous rumors and speculation of a stand-alone Google phone existing. On the day Android was revealed, several notable companies in the mobile phone market who were not a part of the OHA released responses to the announcement.[18] John Forsyth of Symbian stated, "If Google was not involved the industry would have just yawned and rolled over. We take it seriously but we are the ones with real phones, real phone platforms, and a wealth of volume built up over years." Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris remained neutral, saying "We have a great relationship with Google and this doesn't change anything. They are certainly an important partner for iPhone." Scott Horn from Microsoft's Windows Mobile marketing team stated, "It really sounds that they are getting a whole bunch of people together to build a phone and that's something we've been doing for five years." Nokia has stated, "We don't see this as a threat." Later, Nokia spokesman Kari Tuutti stated, "It's not ruled out at all. If we would see this as beneficial we would think about taking part in it."[19] Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated, "Their efforts are just some words on paper right now. They have a press release, we have many, many millions of customers, great software, many hardware devices and they're welcome in our world."[20]
Development
On 12 November, 2007 the OHA released a preview of the Android software development kit which includes development and debugging tools, a set of libraries, a device emulator, documentation, sample projects, tutorials, FAQs, and more.[3] Developers are required to download the Android SDK to an x86-based computer running Windows XP or Vista, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later, or Ubuntu Linux (Dapper Drake or later). Other modern distributions of Linux will also likely work but are not directly supported. Requirements also include Eclipse 3.2 or later, with Java Development Tools and the Android SDK's plugin, or Java and Javac 1.5 or 1.6, Apache Ant, and Python 2.2 or later. The feedback on developing applications for the Android platform have been mixed.[21] Some issues being blamed for the frustration include bugs, lack of documentation, inadequate QA infrastructure, and no public issue-tracking system. MergeLab mobile startup founder, Adam MacBeth, stated, "Functionality is not there, is poorly documented or just doesn't work... It's clearly not ready for prime time."[22]
Features
With the release of the SDK, features and specifications for Android are slowly being released.[23][24]
- Handset layouts
- The platform is adaptable to both larger, VGA, 2D Graphics library, 3D Graphics library based on OpenGL ES 1.0 specifications, traditional smartphone layouts.
- Storage
- SQLite for structured data storage
- Connectivity
- Android supports a wide variety of connectivity technologies including GSM, Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi.
- Messaging
- Both SMS and MMS are available forms of messaging including threaded text messaging.
- Web browser
- The web browser available in Android is based off of the open-source WebKit application framework.
- Java virtual machine
- Software written in Java can be compiled into Dalvik bytecodes and executed in the Dalvik virtual machine, which is a specialized VM implementation designed for mobile device use, although not technically a standard Java Virtual Machine.
- Media support
- Android will support advanced audio/video/still media formats such as MPEG-4, H.264, MP3, and AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF.
- Additional hardware support
- Android is fully capable of utilizing video/still cameras, touchscreens, GPS, compasses, accelerometers, and accelerated 3D graphics.
- Development environment
- Includes a device emulator, tools for debugging, memory and performance profiling, a plugin for the Eclipse IDE.
External links
- [1] introduces the Android platform (YouTube video)
References
- ^ a b c Industry Leaders Announce Open Platform for Mobile Devices (HTML) (English). Open Handset Alliance (2007-11-05). Retrieved on 2007-11-05.
- ^ Open Handset Alliance (HTML) (English). Open Handset Alliance. Retrieved on 2007-11-06.
- ^ a b Open Handset Alliance Releases Android SDK (HTML) (English). Open Handset Alliance (2007-11-12). Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
- ^ a b Elgin, Ben (2005-08-17). Google Buys Android for Its Mobile Arsenal (HTML) (English). Business Week. Retrieved on 2007-11-07.
- ^ Block, Ryan (2007-08-28). Google is working on a mobile OS, and it's due out shortly (HTML) (English). Engadget. Retrieved on 2007-11-06.
- ^ Sharma, Amol; Kevin J. Delaney (2007-08-02). Google Pushes Tailored Phones To Win Lucrative Ad Market (HTML) (English). The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on 2007-11-06.
- ^ a b Google admits to mobile phone plan (HTML) (English). directtraffic.org. Google News (2007-03-20). Retrieved on 2007-11-06.
- ^ McKay, Martha (December 2006). "Can iPhone become your phone? ; Linksys introduces versatile line for cordless service.". The Record: L9. Retrieved on 2007-11-06.
- ^ Ackerman, Elise (2007-08-30). Blogosphere Aflutter With Linux-Based phone Rumors (HTML) (English). Linux Insider. Retrieved on 2007-11-07.
- ^ a b Cox, John (2007-10-08). Why Google’s phone won’t kill Apple’s iPhone (HTML) (English). Network World 2. New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-11-06.
- ^ Larabel, Michael (2007-08-06). Google Using OpenMoko For Phone? (HTML) (English). Phoronix. Retrieved on 2007-11-06.
- ^ a b Claburn, Thomas (2007-09-19). Google's Secret Patent Portfolio Predicts gPhone (HTML) (English). Information Week. Retrieved on 2007-11-06.
- ^ Pearce, James Quintana (2007-09-20). Google’s Strong Mobile-Related Patent Portfolio (HTML) (English). mocoNews.net. Retrieved on 2007-11-07.
- ^ GPhone rumours escalate with new patent (HTML) (English). Mobile Marketing News (2007-04-09). Retrieved on 2007-11-06.
- ^ Mobile patent application fuels Google Phone speculation (HTML) (English). directtraffic.org. Google News (2007-06-09). Retrieved on 2007-11-06.
- ^ Open source mobile payment software (HTML) (English). sourceforge.net. Sourceforge (2007-01-01). Retrieved on 2007-12-31.
- ^ Schmidt, Eric (2007-11-05). Industry Leaders Announce Open Platform for Mobile Devices (HTML) (English). Open Handset Alliance. Retrieved on 2007-11-05. “Today's announcement is more ambitious than any single 'Google Phone' that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks. Our vision is that the powerful platform we're unveiling will power thousands of different phone models.”
- ^ Miller, Paul (2007-11-05). Symbian, Nokia, Microsoft and Apple downplay Android relevance (HTML) (English). Engadget. Retrieved on 2007-11-08.
- ^ Melanson, Donald (2007-11-06). Nokia says Google alliance participation "not ruled out at all" (HTML) (English). Engadget. Retrieved on 2007-11-08.
- ^ Topolsky, Joshua (2007-11-08). Ballmer says Android "just some words on paper" (HTML) (English). Engadget. Retrieved on 2007-11-08.
- ^ Paul, Ryan (2007-12-19). Developing apps for Google Android: it's a mixed bag (HTML) (English). ars technica. Retrieved on 2007-12-19.
- ^ Morrison, Scott (2007-12-19). Glitches Bug Google's Android Software (HTML) (English). The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on 2007-12-19.
- ^ What is Android? (HTML) (English). Google (2007-11-12). Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
- ^ Topolsky, Joshua (2007-11-12). Google's Android OS early look SDK now available (HTML) (English). Engadget. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
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