Google’s Android Mobile Platform to Launch Sept. 23
It’s official, Google’s Android mobile platform is about to go from vaporware to actual, shipping product. The launch will happen at TMobile press conference in New York on September 23rd, although the first Android phone, the HTC Dream, won’t hit stores until October.
Like the iPhone 2.0, expect TMobile to subsidize the price of the Dream with various contract deals. Our own Gadget Lab has more details on the hardware aspects of the Dream, which features a full, slide-out QWERTY keyboard and strikes us as a potential Blackberry replacement.
Obviously, from a software standpoint, the open nature of the Android platform will appeal to geeks, but the user interface looks a bit rough next to the iPhone, its main competitor. As Scott Loganbill put it in our earlier review, “it feels like Android is competing with Symbian as merely a mediocre software OS which just works.”
As for how Android stacks up against the iPhone in terms of applications, that remains to be seen. You can bet Google’s existing mobile applications, like Maps, will work just as well, and potentially better — the Android SDK includes a version of Google’s streetview feature, something the iPhone version lacks– on Android phones.
Still, as we’ve said before, Apple has a pretty good lead with App Store, not to mention nearly ubiquitous brand recognition. As it stands, mention Android to anyone outside the tech community and the connotation will likely be Star Trek, not a mobile phone platform.
However, with Apple’s App Store revealing itself to be a capricious entity willing to impose arbitrary judgments and restrictions, the open nature of Android may become more appealing for developers.
If you’re looking to develop a mobile application and face a potential Apple App Store rejection after you’ve put in all the development work, versus developing for Android, which will impose no such restrictions, which would you choose?
While we doubt that iPhone developers are going to abandon the platform in droves, certainly some will likely turn their back on Apple’s tightly controlled App Store in favor of a more open alternative.
Android also has another appeal over the iPhone — you can unlock the handset and run it on any mobile carrier. The iPhone remains tether to the AT&T network, which has gained notoriety for its inability to deliver 3G coverage in many areas.
If nothing else, Android offer some of the first real competition for the iPhone and may well force Apple to relinquish a little control in the interests of innovation.
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