SiteCrafting Blah Blah Blog
Nov. 14, 2007 at 12:01am
Android: The REAL Next Gen of Web Apps
If the iPhone is web apps to go, Google and the Open Handset Alliance's new open source mobile phone API, dubbed Android, is The Joy Of Cooking Webapps. Once again Google has seen a good idea (packing a cell phone full of convenient little apps and widgets that sync with websites and external systems) and figured out a way to make it a great one.
If you haven't been following the news on Android, here's the basic scoop: Google has teamed with a group of phone manufacturers (T Mobile, Motorola, etc, just to name a few of the biggies) to create the Open Handset Alliance, who are running on a pretty basic principle (and one that Big OS Developers) have still failed to grasp. If everyone is competing to get the best developers to work on their system, nobody is going to get the best software. So much time is wasted working within proprietary systems and on cross-platform compatibility that the chance for true innovation is weakened, if not lost altogether. Let software engineers come up with what they're trained for: good software ideas. Someone who wants to write a killer chat widget for a cell phone shouldn't have to sit around trying to decide what phone they're going to sink their time and code into. The telecom industry is in such flux that it's impossible to tell just which company is going to be big, or bought, or gone tomorrow.
Hence, the OHA introduces a common API, one that the involved parties are commited to using (some say they'll have Android-ready handsets come Q4 of 2008), one that allows open source developers all over the world to simply code, writing Java programs secure in the knowledge (unless something goes horribly awry) that they won't be tied to a single manufacturer.
On top of the usefullness of a generalized API, this alliance fosters innovation in another way: once a group of competing vendors band together on something like this, proprietary development concerns go out the window. Apple is still stuck trying to keep most of the iPhone development in house. Android, on the other hand, is blatantly relying on the open source community. And since it is built on the backs of pure hardware vendors, no one has a service provider looking over their shoulder going "Oh no, what if someone ports Skype to this phone? We're doomed!" Well, maybe they are still looking... but they no longer have the power to stop it.
What really excites me here, though, is just how much force Google is putting behind getting the developer community involved. With Monday's SDK release, a full year before the first Android-enabled handsets will hit the market, they took a major step toward ensuring the success of the project. I've toyed with the system a bit, and I tell you it is sweet. In addition to command line tools and serious documentation, they've also wrapped the whole toolkit up in an Eclipse plug-in, complete with an incredibly thorough simulation setup: a visual representation of a full-keypad handset, complete with already installed and fully functional browser, Google maps, and address book... you can even place calls (no, they don't go through, but it does record them in a recent call list for you). As if just putting the tools out there wasn't enough, suddenly there's the Android Developer Challenge, complete with $10 million in cash prizes to encourage innovation and development.
I don't know about anyone else, but this whole thing excites me to no end. I don't really have aspirations of winning any of that money... I've only done minimal Java development in the last couple years. But it feels good to get in on the ground floor of something that feels like it could be genuinely revolutionary. This really is the next step. Here at SiteCrafting we've already started building mobile web interfaces for some of our clients' more complex business management apps. I'm eagerly anticipating the day when we don't have to put together tiny webpages for field managers to use, because they've got a genuine application on their phone, grabbing and updating live data from the system we've built them.
So maybe I won't win $25,000 by having and executing one of the best 50 ideas by February, but everyone in telecommunications, software engineering, web development, and, well... pretty much everyone has a lot to gain from the work that's going to be spawned here in the next few months. I've already started work on my new Android app. Have you?
Posted in Critiques, Odds 'n Ends, Software Engineering by Joe Izenman
Comments (1)
Nick says:
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one excited about the prospects of Android. Open standards are the way to go when it comes to fostering innovation and ease of use, and ultimately benefits all parties involved. It frustrates me to no end when I see billion-dollar organizations that don't understand this (What the @#$% Sony?). It's particularly bad within the telecom business, so it is somewhat of a relief to see something like Android become a reality. I can't wait to see what the dev community creates in the coming months!
1 | Nov. 14, 2007 at 4:25pm