Android Dream: Google's Phone OS

The first Android phone just launched. It is called the HTC Dream, sold as the T-Mobile G1, and it is running Google's open source mobile operating system. I have not held one in my hands. I probably will not for a long time. But I have been reading everything I can find about it and I need to write down my thoughts before my head explodes.

Google built an operating system for phones, and then they gave it away for free. For free. Any phone manufacturer can take Android, modify it, and put it on their hardware without paying Google a dime.

If you know anything about how the software industry works, you know how insane that is.

The Open Source Angle

This is what gets me most excited. Android is open source. The code is available for anyone to look at, modify, and redistribute. This is not like the iPhone, where Apple controls everything: the hardware, the software, the app store, the entire experience.

With Android, the operating system belongs to everyone. HTC made the first phone, but Samsung, Motorola, LG, and dozens of other manufacturers can make Android phones too. Each one can customize the interface, add their own features, make it their own. Competition between manufacturers will drive innovation and push prices down.

For someone like me who fell in love with Linux and open source software, Android feels like the natural evolution of that philosophy. Linux runs most of the servers on the internet. Now a version of Linux (Android runs on a Linux kernel) might end up running most of the phones in people's pockets.

Comparing to the iPhone

The iPhone is a beautiful, polished product. Nobody can deny that. Apple's design sense is unmatched, and the user experience is seamless. But the iPhone is a closed ecosystem. Apple decides what apps you can install. Apple decides what features the phone has. Apple decides everything.

The G1 is not as pretty as the iPhone. From the photos I have seen, it is a bit chunky, with a slide-out physical keyboard that makes it thicker than it needs to be. The interface is not as smooth or polished. If you put the two phones side by side, the iPhone wins on pure aesthetics, no question.

But the G1 has things the iPhone does not. A real notification system that shows alerts without interrupting what you are doing. The ability to set default apps, so you can choose which browser or email app opens by default. Tighter integration with Google services like Gmail, Maps, and Google Talk. And the app store, called Android Market, is more open about what kinds of apps are allowed.

I think the comparison between Android and iPhone is going to be one of the defining technology debates of the next few years. It mirrors the old Windows vs Mac debate, or even the Linux vs Windows debate. Closed and polished vs open and flexible.

What About the Rest of the World?

This is where I get really excited. The iPhone is expensive. Really expensive. Most people where I grew up cannot afford it, and Apple has not made any serious effort to sell it in most developing markets.

But Android phones do not have to be expensive. Because the software is free, phone manufacturers can focus their costs on the hardware. And because any manufacturer can build one, there will be competition to build affordable Android phones.

Imagine a world where a farmer in a village has a smartphone with internet access, maps, a camera, email, and thousands of apps. That world is not possible at iPhone prices. But it might be possible with Android, if manufacturers build affordable devices.

I know I am getting ahead of myself. The G1 costs $179 with a contract in the US, which is still expensive for most of the world. But the trend is what matters. Give it a few years, and I believe there will be Android phones at price points that make them accessible to hundreds of millions of people who have never owned a computer.

The internet will not come to most of the world through laptops and desktops. It will come through phones. And if those phones run an open source operating system, that is a fundamentally different future than one where a single company controls the platform.

The Developer Story

Apple announced the iPhone SDK earlier this year, and developers have been building apps for the App Store. Now Android has its own SDK, and it uses Java, a language that millions of developers already know.

I know some Java from my coursework. It is the language my college teaches for object oriented programming. The syntax is familiar, the tools are mature, and there are endless resources for learning it. The fact that Android uses Java means I could potentially build a mobile application without learning an entirely new language.

I have not set up the Android SDK yet. My laptop struggles with the development tools for regular applications; I am not sure it can handle a phone emulator. But it is on my list. The idea of building something that runs on a phone, something that someone could carry in their pocket and use throughout the day, that is a different kind of exciting from building a web page.

The Bigger Picture

Between Chrome, Android, App Engine, and all their web services, Google is building something enormous. They are creating an entire ecosystem: a phone operating system, a web browser, a cloud platform, all tied together by their services and by the open web.

I do not know if this is brilliant strategy or just a company with too much money throwing things at the wall. Maybe both. But the result is that developers have more tools and platforms available to them than ever before, and most of them are free.

For a student who has ideas but very little money, this is the best possible timeline. The barriers to building software are falling fast. You do not need expensive hardware. You do not need expensive software licenses. You just need a computer, an internet connection, and the willingness to learn.

I have all three. Now I just need to pick a direction and start building.