Finally, we can stop speculating about the gPhone. Instead, we can gleefully anticipate letting a thousand gPhones bloom, so to speak.
Google announced its Android software platform for mobile phones and other devices. Google will give developers the software for free, under what Google chief Eric Schmidt promised would be some of the most permissive software licenses available. Google also announced an impressive passel of 33 supporting partners, from chip-makers to carriers. So developers get two primary objections, costs and industry support, addressed immediately. (You can check out an informative Network World FAQ about Android here.)
This is not great news for Microsoft and Windows Mobile, which is currently locked in a struggle for second place in the mobile operating system market. According to published reports, Symbian (which already refers to its flagship offering as "the open mobile operating system") accounts for 74 percent of that market, Windows Mobile for 13 percent, and variations of Linux for 12 percent. Android, however, is Linux-based. If it becomes popular, it could push Windows Mobile into third place, closer to Research in Motion, Ltd. (RIM)'s BlackBerry, which accounts for 11 percent of the market.
As reported in Network World by Jon Brodkin, there is some concern that the very openness of the Android platform will breed incompatibilities among applications offered by multiple developers. However, IT departments managed to figure out how to support BlackBerry devices and servers, and are already figuring out how to support Apple Inc.'s iPhone. I have faith that if and when Android-based telephones with attractive, enterprise-ready features begin to appear - and they will - their developers and IT departments will figure out how to make them work. (And it's not like they don't have time to do so, or that Google won't try to help as much as possible...)
Meanwhile, some analysts dismiss the Android platform as primarily or only a consumer play. Well, duh. Of course it is - for now. But if there's an enterprise not interested in delivering advertising, services, support, or other stuff to the universe of consumer mobile phone users, I haven't encountered it. So even if an enterprise isn't yet interested in supporting internal Android users, it likely should already be looking at the platform for possible market-facing opportunities.
I, for one, can barely wait to see if and how Microsoft responds. Will it join Google's Open Handset Alliance, to promote interoperability among Android-based and Windows Mobile applications, devices, and services? Will it compete more aggressively with Google for developer and advertiser hearts and minds? Or will it publicly sniff that Android is still little more than a work in progress and some interesting news releases, and make a great show of ignoring Android until and unless impressive devices and services begin to appear?
Frankly, I expect to see variations of all three reactions from Microsoft and its ecosystem of partners, in the short term. But if Android results in compelling offerings quickly, we could be having a very different conversation six to 12 months from now...
