Android natives are restless

With no new SDK from Google in 4 months, Android developers are getting so antsy that Google Android engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru felt the need to respond. In a post that began, "I'm going to get in trouble for this," he acknowledged developer frustration, along with the corresponding Android team's frustration with not being allowed to provide more concrete timelines as Google preps the Android OS.

Some developers have launched a petition on Android Google Groups complaining about the lack of an SDK update since March and Google's general lack of openness with developers. In response, Queru says:

"Many of us [on the Android team] have played roles in various developer communities in the past, very often on both sides of the fence, and in more ways than one we understand the situation that the developer community is in right now and we share the pain. So, while those posts aren't falling on deaf ears, they're typically falling in the wide-open ears of people whose hands are tied and whose mouths are gagged, and the frustration that such posts create in the Android team might in fact be larger than the relief that gets created in the community."

In other words, he feels their pain but isn't allowed to say when an SDK update may be forthcoming. And that's too bad, since the success of the Android platform depends on having a critical mass of developers willing to write to it. For now, the developer community seems to be keeping the faith, and in his post, Queru seems to hint that a final SDK will be available shortly after the release of the final embedded software to manufacturing, "well in advance of the availability of devices." But for now, developers are stuck wanting and waiting.