The iPhone may be the only game in town for serious mobile Web developers right now, but that won’t last long. Next year, the iPhone will see some serious competition from Google’s Android platform. Of course, T-Mobile will start selling the first Android phone, the G1 made by HTC, on October 22. But other cell phone manufacturers are gearing up for a major Android push.
The most significant of these may come from Motorola. One of the original partners in the Open Handset Alliance behind the open-source mobile OS, Motorola already has 50 people on its Android team and is growing that to 350, according to an Android developer approached by a headhunter to join the team. That is a huge commitment that shows how big a bet Motorola is making on Android.
This same source has also seen people from Nokia and Verizon at a recent Android developer conference. The conference was put on by Google last week for developers who had not yet seen the G1 to help prepare them for its launch. In general, in order to be an attendee, you had to have an Android app. Neither Nokia nor Verizon are official members of the Open Handset Alliance.
Nokia recently acquired the rest of Symbian it didn’t already own, and is determined to keep that OS as long as possible, since it powers all of its S60 phones. But Nokia may have an Android team sniffing around, which is smart even if it is for nothing other than to gain competitive intelligence. And if Android takes off, Nokia could decide to hedge its bets and launch its own Android phone.
There is a certain inexorable logic behind all the interest in Android.
1. It is a more capable mobile Web computer than anything other than the iPhone.
2. It is a very appealing development environment for app creators—and just like on the PC, apps will drive adoption.
3. Most importantly, as an open-source OS, manufacturers don’t have to pay a licensing fee to whoever controls the OS. Given the razor-thin margins in the cell phone business, that alone is reason for manufacturers to embrace Android (with the exception of Nokia, which owns Symbian). But you can see why Motorola might see Android as the key to its recovery.
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The iPhone may be the only game in town for serious mobile Web developers right now, but that won’t last ling.
Pretty sure you meant long.
I feel this post is written for me. Do not take away my joy.
Using googl search on mobl is not like using it on the net. Small screen, no one wants to type keyphrase entries like you would online. Totally different experience. nor do people like to be served millions garbled algorithim based search results and seeing adsendse auction ads.
“G cant get away with pushing garbled mumbo jumbo spit out algorithim based search results on mobile community. ” this is where its gonna get real interesting. “maybe” its time for them to get a “strategic multichannel premium location based custom niche vertical offering” agenda. myspecialty.
http://www.killerstartups.com/.....or-network
TeamLocator.com- gather round
Just a slight nitpicking over etymology:
Can we stop calling it the “mobile web”. I believe real innovation in mobile software will require native platform access (GPS, etc.) — read: NOT WEB. The future of mobile computing will leave cookies and quirksmode HTML/DOM/CSS/Javascript headaches to the desktop dinosaurs, and the lowly “browser” will return to doing what it always did best: browsing.
Lol, yeah I’m pretty sure he meant long also. Anyways, that’s good the Iphone now has some competition because this will make Apple and others be more innovative.
What I like about android is that it can fit multiple hardware and is not limited to just iPhone or similar from one Vendor. Making it more stable over time..
Actually, the fact that it will have to run on more than one piece of hardware will likely make it less stable.
That is like saying Linux or any other OS is less stable because it runs on multiple pieces of hardware.
which is true, different pieces of hardware lead to instability.
Look at what Google dun started now since they dropped their G Android phone. Now, they all gonna start hating, like Apple, Micro not so soft, Nokia, Nextel , and the rest of the cellular broadband phone tattle tales…lol
My guess is that Motorola and Nokia will try to “mimick” the Android, but will not etch themselves towards getting the amount of sales the Google phone is getting right now…lol
I don’t think you get it. Android is an OS not a specific phone. There is no “Google phone” but there is the G1, an HTC device which runs Android. Other phone makers don’t need to “mimick” Android, they can use the actual Android on their phones. It might take some customization to Android (drivers etc) and/or changes to their hardware so this is what Motorola is investigating at this time.
It’s obvious that “drewry” has no clue whatsover, particularly when he spouts garbage from his piehole like this:
“Look at what Google dun started now since they dropped their G Android phone”
Wow, you so ghetto. Oh, I’m sorry, I meant to say you’re a raving dumbass. Grow up and learn to use the english language like a sabre, not a cudgel. Moron.
Intel thought they could break into wireless too.
Now Google.
The first tier network and phone suppliers will nod and say “very nice” and adopt any good new ideas they hear of, and just continue what they are doing until Google flops.
There is really no new idea in a common OS. You effectively have the same
functionality already in java-enabled phones, where different hardware implementations are abstracted into a common language that programmers can create applications in.
Another factor of which Google is unaware is that there are FCC and NSA rules about giving 3rd party apps. access to layer 1 control of the phone. There are even worse agencies to deal with in other countries. Think about military grade ciphering, radio controlled bombs, eavesdropping on Congress and business leaders for trading on inside knowledge, etc. They had better get a grasp of this before the black helicopters appear overhead.
I’m very excited about Android and have been for a while now. While we love the iPhone and it is our main platform for doing reviews, we know that Android is going to be a major player in the market and are so excited to start using and reviewing the applications. Competition is what makes products better and hopefully Apple can see the tidal wave coming, and they start making their improvements to the App Store and development process NOW rather than later.
That’s a move I expected - the future are “real” operating systems/platforms on the devices where ordinary can develop tool and not very special systems like symbian (just take a look at the mess of the versions). So, Apple has Mac OS, Google Android/Linux - so for Motorola it’s the best thing to jump on this train and concentrate on designing cool phones and do a good marketing job.
I once owned a V3 and the software was just hell … hope that will change in future.
lol just the name will get me
http://cashtutor.blogspot.com
Nokia does make excellent hardware. Hopefully someone will get Android to run on the new touchscreen phone Nokia is about to announce, so anyone buying those phones now can upgrade to Android in the future.
>that won’t last ling. Next year, the iPhione will…
“i” prevails …(for now)..
[quote] “It is a more capable mobile Web computer than anything other than the iPhone.”
You should have said INCLUDING the iPhone.
Android is a true multi-task OS and handles a compass (welcome Augmented Reality Geo-Location), that alone makes it more powerful than the iPhone.
“Android is a true multi-task OS”
And OS X isn’t?
How do people come up with these inanities?
Single-app-at-a-time, from the end-user POV, is BY DESIGN, in case you know nothing about the OS that runs the iPhone.
They have a long way to go before they supplant the iPhone. With all its perceived faults, it’s still a work of art or science.
Android is an interesting *developer* environment. BUT if Google doesn’t watch out, that environment will fracture as hardware manufacturers and carriers add their own proprietary functionality and limitations. Then Android will present as many problems as any phone OS, i.e., developers will have to adjust their applications for every phone running on Android.
until it gets messaging like the iphone it wont be for corporates…
the one thing that gartner et. al. said in their analysis of the original iPhone firmware was support for exchange now iPhone, blackberry and Nokia both have that but the google phone not and until someone does it (not exactly sure how that would happen since Microsoft owns it and would I presume try and control it) you wont see the google OS working out in the business world….
it wont have the cache of the iPod so really they are going after motorola and Sony Ericsson market place so they really need a flip format… maybe this is what Moto want to do before their market share gets eaten
Nokia are really competing with blackberry in bussiness and I have to say they need to improve their marketing (the phones are actually for the most part better now) and get a killer app for the E series like linkedin app tied to location or a business card reader that works like evernote…
until that happens blackberry keep getting better through clever marketing and viral tactics
Nokia should be able for a while to undercut people by selling the low end and getting economy of scale
regards
John Jones
http://www.johnjones.me.uk
I love people who think the IPhone is some kind of work of art with starry eyes. It is a piece of Hardware that will get old just like the first mac did. It is all in the software dummy, thanks why microsoft ate the mac’s lunch.
Heheh… look into why iPhone won.
tim, i think it’s time that you update your software! Microsoft lost the ipod war and is losing the iphone war. obviously if you had ever used an iphone you would realize that the iphone is all about the software…
The iPhone is all about maketing and hype for retards.
Two spelling mistakes in the 1st paragraph … nice.
I must agree with Tim…Android WILL eat Apple`s lunch. Android gives the consumer many different form-factors , and over time will far surpass the iPhone and it`s closed system .
Android is akin to the Windows PC. Availability of software/drivers/hardware and ability to tinker is why the PC won. Not to mention PC is by far the best gaming platform.
Go Android !!!
On the first day of release, the potential is gigantic: quite simply ALL of the FOSS apps that already exist can be ported to Android. None can be ported to the iPhone, due to the bloody restrictions of grandpa Jobs.
Alex, this is simply nonsense, unless you mean “rewritten from scratch” when you write “ported”. Aside from the Linux kernel, Android resebles no FOSS operating system known to mankind. It doesn’t use GTK+, it doesn’t use Gstreamer, it doesn’t use BlueZ, it doesn’t even use the standard “standard C library”. The only mechanism available for development is Java, and even that isn’t a standard version: it’s the “Dalvik” version of Java.
The iPhone at least uses Objective-C, which bears some vague resemblance to C and C++; you’re nowhere near that close to the reality of FOSS programming on Android.
Another wheel, needlessly reinvented.
Sammy you might want to crack open a history book and read why Windows “won”. speaking of history this is exactly what people said about the ipod…
Great to have competition but I predict Apple will always be 1-2 years ahead and Android will always be chasing the iPhone tail. Just like Linux is mostly just me too stuff, never out front.
It’s not the OS and not the number of programmers, it’s the imagination that most lack.
I see where you are coming from, but I don’t agree. Depending on how you look at it OSS Linux is now in front of commercial platforms. KDE for example is a more functional interface than Vista (as a disgustingly broad generalisation).
I think historically there has been two steps to establishing market dominance (in this order):
1. Create something new and innovative (imagination that you mention, like iPhone larger mobile touch screen device is new)
2. Corner the market through lack of general interface (e.g., iTunes)
The question for me is if number 2 is really so important.
At the end of the day these corporations employ people which pays mortgages and sends kids to school, so I guess that’s the important thing
This is interesting, I didn’t even realize Motorola was part of the team given there was no mention of them when G1 was launched (only mention of Samsung & LG planning phones for 2009). Seems like Motorola has fallen way behind, so even Samsung & LG had more exciting products than Motorola right now. Motorola really needs this to be a success for them.
On the issue of mobile web computer, the new Android 1.0 actually supports Google Gears and the important part of this is: “Given that Android can support arbitrary browser plugins written using the NPAPI standard, it should be possible for other popular add-ons (*cough*Flash*cough*) to be ported to the gPhone.”
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?p=662
Could Android be the first mobile OS with a browser with full flash support and potentially other popular add-ons (without using server side rendering)? This would be huge if that this is possible, something I’ve been waiting for quite some time.
“Could Android be the first mobile OS with a browser with full flash support…?”
No, because Flash doesn’t have native multi-touch support, Android aspires to have at least some multi-touch capable phones to compete against the iPhone. I explained it here:
The new UI wars: Why there’s no Flash on iPhone 2.0
http://counternotions.com/2008/06/17/flash-iphone/
“Mobile Web Developer” - what’s the web got to do with it? This is internet client/server - plain and simple.
I agree with the “starry-eyed* comment. There are two must-have markets that a mobile phone developer, hardware as well as software, has to support. One is the teen market, where usage types that will become mainstream are invented and/or improved by the teens themselves (SMS was developed so the carrier could send service messages to the customer), and the other is the corporate market. Apparently because so many journalists have written that it is really important for the corporate market that Microsoft Exchange is supported, everybody, including Apple, now believes that. But what is in fact the standard vehicle in the corporate and the Federal world, is Lotus Notes/Domino. Many of the Federal and corporate websites you see are run on Domino, interlinked with Lotus’ mail systems.
So until some folks begin to understand that Nokia has supported Lotus Notes since the year dot, with a *free* application, and that the Blackberry smoothly integrates with Notes, and that this isn’t discussed much, in the press, because it really is only the purchasing managers and IT folks that need to know, until that time everybody will compare everything new to the iPhone - an expensive toy that doesn’t support the protocols the industry needs.
I just spent two weeks in China. I saw all of two iPhones, in those two weeks. One in the hands of a Chinese model that had just arrived at Dulles Airport, and one that was offered to me at a market stall in Beijing - US$400, is the asking price for an unlocked iPhone 3G. Which means you can get it for $350. The iPhone is available at every store you go into in Beijing, but nobody is buying it. Hence the price.
If you’re serious about this market, you need to look at those manufacturers that can serve the cheap as well as the top of line, and that can deliver a full mobile system out of its own factory - switches, transmitters, towers, dishes, microwave and fiber links, voicemail and faxmail systems, and handsets.
Anyone that does not cover those two bases does not have the expertise to survive in the mobile market. It is really that simple. It’s got nothing to do with touch screens…
I was just in China as well (based in Hong Kong and travel there frequently) and saw several people using iPhones. Apple just announced that unlocked 3G iPhones are available retail in Hong Kong and this will mean many, many will flow across the border to China, Price is a bit high at some $700 but it is unlocked and any SIM card will work.
I have been using a Palm Centro (you can stop laughing now….) and like the idea of an open source O/S so we are not limited to Symbian, WinMo, RIM or Palm O/S’s for smart phones (perhaps an archaic term now…..”mobile internet device”?). I await more information on the availability of third party apps for Android as syncing to Outlook is critical for me.
thanks
Next year, the iPhione will see some serious competition from Google’s Android platform.
iPhione.
Jesus, can’t anyone even use spell check anymore?
Erick, or Mike, if you had an Ameritrade window sitting open and had 10,000 $ to invest in any company before the Q2 2009 rebound takes effect, what company would it be?
Even if GOOG does rebound with Android, that’s only a 35% jump back to 600.
YHOO ??? Is Yang finally going to get ousted?
What are your picks ???
Post a disclaimer if need be.
Please post the buy & sell triggers as well with your responses. 1 buy for the 10k over a 6 month period, unless the sell trigger hits.
Please STFU beerco, you’ve been getting awful loud recently. At least you dont spam your “also rans” anymore, and even say some smart stuff.
Unlike other, more recent TC-spammers, you realice the TC traffic ain’t worth shit to your business. Good job
Alex, please learn how to spell and stop your potty Canadian mouth from taking word form in reply to my comments.
Chris you are a douchebag.
Can’t wait to see a “Hello, Moto” Android app…
although open source means manufacturers like motorola wouldnt need to worry about paying for licenses, it also means they are required to release any changes they make to the code. it is understandable that manufacturers will want to keep their competitive edge and NOT release these changes.
open source is not without its “draw backs” …
You dont seem to understand the various software licenses and their terms. Some allow for commercial proprietary code on top (eg. BSD license on which OS X is built) and some dont. Investigate the various OSS licenses, then get back to us.
Not to the Android code: it’s being released under Apache, a non-reciprocal license.
Lets get this OS out there so we have more than one option. I see the Iphone as closed source like Microsoft, Android as to Linux. Hurry up AT&T!
EarlWallace
Please proofread the article before posting it. It is full of spelling errors and grammatical oversights.
The natural evolution of the Android OS will mirror what happened to the Windows OS from Microsoft:
1. It won’t take long before the Android OS is seething with Viruses, Trojans and Worms just like Windows.
2. Each manufacturer of a smart phone running Android won’t be able to resist adding his own proprietary improvement, such as a new button or unique key sequence. Then using a smart phone running the Android OS will be just as frustrating and prone to crashes and lockups as a generic PC running Windows as an OS.
I agree with Steve.As everyone goes more to doing business with their phones.Hackers will try to take control of their phones.Apples playground will become a safe haven once again.
Exactly. look at what is happening to Linux. fragmentation. everybody’s got their own version of linux (redhat, ubuntu, etc.). We’re going to see the same thing with Android, not to mention viruses, trojans, worms, etc.
1. How many viruses you see in Linux nowadays? It is used in critical systems so I would see it more prone to attacks, but no. Get your things straight.
2. Android will be like a Linux distribution. Any software you release on it will work on another Android phone. Wouldn’t you think Google hadn’t think of that?
I bought me an iPhione once.
Battery life wasn’t very ling.
And the keyboard was hell to work with .
Sold it on Ebay some time back.
Now I know who bought it.
Erick Schonfeld….
How come there’s no mention of Google ‘copying’ stealing product ideas from Apple?
If it was Microsoft…
I think the first few versions of the Android phone won’t be all that impressive, give it sometime I think it will be a game changer with the cell phone industry.
Interesting to see what Nokia will do, as mentioned in the article, I think it can and will adopt the Android platform.
does TC purposely insert typos to look more authentic????
I wonder if Android will be really open-source.
So far, Google showed only the SDK. I thought that since Android is based on Linux, they have to provide source code.
I hope it’s only a question of time.
The article incorrectly asserts that Symbian powers all Nokia phones. In fact it powers only the Series 60 smart phones. Series 30 and 40 power the vast bulk of all Nokia handsets.
The fact of the matter is while S60 has had significant volume it has never lived up to it’s goals as a general purpose computing platform as far as I’m concerned. and 6 years of mobile application development for symbian doesn’t add up to the 2 quarters of iphone development.
I’m still amazed by the fact that Google is giving away Android free of charge. I can’t wait to see what company is going to come along and challenge Google’s market position. What will they have to do, find a way to distribute cash free of charge?
“What will they have to do, find a way to distribute cash free of charge?”
Microsoft is trying just that in search.
How come there’s no mention of Google ‘copying’ stealing product ideas from Apple?.
Nobody is because there were touchscreen handsets before the iPhone and that’s basically the only “innovation” that must people talk about.
“there were touchscreen handsets before the iPhone”
It would really help if you learned the difference between touch and multi-touch screens for mobiles.
When I got my first Mac — an SE — friends harped on how much horsepower it used just to be “user friendly,” how a mouse and icons slowed you down, even how green text on a black background was easier to read. Yeah, it was slower than my PC, but after I bought that computer I was hooked on the GUI. To me, multi-touch feels like a change of similar magnitude.
In all the years of hype over multitouch, there hasn’t been a hell of a lot of difference shown. Hours of demo footage on the topic, and what have we seen? Zooming and rotating. Zooming and rotating. Who cares? And all of Apple’s plans seem to consist of obscure swipes and gestures that are not user-discoverable and far less intuitive and convenient than clearly marked keys or even a mouse.
What Haveyou, you have to be joking! have you ever used an iphone. Multi touch is amazing and makes using it much quicker. If you had bothered to put it side by side next to a touch screen you would realize how stupid your comments are.
itsmenyc you are a moron. Multitouch requires two hand operation and can be substituted with normal touch gestures.
Google this year is just taking there first mini steps in the phone industry, wait a few months than you will see how amazing it will be.
“has 50 people on its Android team and is growing that to 350″
WRONG. It is expanding that to 350. If you add people to a team, it grows. But you don’t grow it.
You don’t die germs. You kill germs, and they die. Similarly, you don’t grow a team or a business.
I am growing some plants in my back yard
I am growing a hard on in my crotch
I am growing my company
I am growing my team to 350 people.
Grow has plenty of legitimate uses not involving first person action. Not to mention, if you are a company, then it is a first person action, in which case, your whole point is wrong anyway.
People are also forgetting Microsoft. They have a new touch screen powered Mobile PC coming out next year. Most likely it will be powered by Silverlight technology or some XNA version. Microsoft is in a unique position (unlike Apple, Google) where they own: .NET, Silverlight and the OS which scales on the mobile and on the desktop. Furthermore, Microsoft still has a very good foothold on the corporate/enterprise market where Apple/Google are not in yet. Add-in Microsoft’s push into casual gaming not only on the XBOX 360..you can use the Zune to play XNA games. Microsoft has some very interesting things in their corner.
I am not saying that they are going to slaughter Google/Apple, just that they have another angle to compete with. Next year will be a very interesting year for mobile computing.
Good point. Microsoft is definitely in the mix, and as usual they get little respect from the web community.
It will all come down to business models. Where will the money supporting mobile phone service finally be generated? Will the money come from:
- a per-call charge paid by the consumer?
- a flat rate paid by the consumer?
- software sales?
- keyword search advertising?
- some other as-yet unknown advertising?
To put things in perspective :
- Symbian OS : 57.1% Market Share
- BlackBerry : 17.4%
- Windows Mobile : 12.0%
- Linux (based) : 7.3%
- iPhone OS : 2.8%
- Palm OS : 2.3%
The hype dosen’t make justice for Android. Wait and see if it’ll be able to climb the ladder.
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone
I wonder how accurate and up to date these statistics are.
I’m guessing its a matter of time before SE jumps on this bandwagon too!
It is very nice to see goggle is committed to Mobile segment. Nokia decision to join antroid is perfect synergy both for end user and the company
If any developers/companies are interested in developer-seminars for Android in Germany (or negotiatable in Europe + USA), please refer to http://darearts.net/android.htm or contact android@darearts.net
Motorola actually can make decent hardware and has proven its innovations in the past. If their hardware specialists haven’t already left the company, I think they could make a product much better than their more recent attempts. Motorola’s achilles heal, in my opinion, has been software–their interfaces stink! Their phones have been unintuitive, scattered and ugly. Android may do more for Motorola than for any other brand, that is, if Moto gets on it and builds a device as groundbreaking of a design as the Razr was. This should have been the partnership all along, but I think Moto is so scattered with Windows Mobile, flavors of Linux and their own platforms, that Google shied away as a dev partner (I’m guessing).
Nevertheless, it would be nice to see Motorola gain so street cred in this business. They were THE brand when it all began and with this boost in software design, they should be able to be a solid #2 worldwide, behind Nokia.
Compared to iPhone, however, there’s no contest–this phone or platform will never be an iPhone. This is both a negative and a positive. However, I see the Android platform being shopped against WindowsMobile and to a lesser extent, Symbian; rather than a real competitor to the iPhone. BlackBerry will also be little affected by Android, due to limitations in Android’s current mail configuration. Add to that BB’s enormous enterprise market share. iPhone will make inroads into enterprise, but it’s place as a new portable computing platform is more flexible because of the hardware’s power and functionality. Apple is also expert at building development tools to attract authors to write cool software easily. Google knows little about this space. Apple also won’t rest on its laurels–they will keep innovating. By the same token, if Apple keeps their kung-fu grip on iPhone to dissuade developers and users, beyond the logical reasons for keeping the platform reliable, then they could be their own worst enemy.
It’s almost like 1985 all over again!
I’ve said over and over that competition like the type we are about to see only helps the consumer. I’m watching for the release of Fring (voip/im client) to the App Store. I think if that app goes through, Apple has effectively confessed they have heard the backlash.
I can’t agree here. Most of this is based off the base functionality of the OS. Things like email compatibility were purposefully left for 3rd parties to handle if they saw the need. You really can’t compare this OS to anything else. You will almost have to compare the Android based phones on a case by case or carrier by carrier basis. And even that isn’t reliable as the App Market can completely change any phones capabilities once its in the users hands. Theres really nothing to do but wait and see.
As for ease of development Google has relied on Eclipse and I believe NetBeans which are standards for Java development. I don’t think they have to worry too much about their development offerings.
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Please, Verizon, deliver me from Windows Mobile hell…
Confusing.
Is it really so important that Android is free to phone makers? If Nokia spends $40 million/year building Symbian, and they sell 400 million phones… well, you get the point.
Seems to me that Android’s advantages should be:
1) Open-sourcing it means manufacturers can modify it as they like without having to build too much themselves. MS and Symbian might not let let them do that, and other OS’s might be more primitive than Android.
2) Google tie-ins open door for ad-sponsored mobile plans. OK, but can’t anyone do this?
Thats great for Nokia. Do Samsung, LG, HTC, Motorla and others have their own smartphone OS? If it saves them the cost of WinMo and allows them to customize it to their hardware as well as offer a customizable platform to carriers then I’m sure they’d want to jump on it.