The announcement, late last week, of an unlocked, flashable “Android Dev Phone 1”, sold via the Android Market, was just one of several things that have occurred recently that are helping to slowly crank Android even more open than it already was.
This is not to minimize the importance of the Dev Phone 1. Having a device that developers can access that absolutely can have new firmware uploaded is hugely important. While a lot of the long-term benefit will go to those people working on patching and extending the firmware itself, in the near-term, it creates a level of comfort among some that Android is truly open end-to-end.
But, beyond the Dev Phone 1, we saw:
- More evidence of other devices from other manufacturers, beyond the G1, such as the Kogan Agora and the QiGi. While there certainly will be questions about both devices until they ship,it is nice to see that the Android “let a thousand models bloom” strategy is playing out as expected.
An increased drive by the core Android team to involve the community in design discussions, particularly around storage management, due to the limited space on board a G1. With the Android mailing lists dominated by a flood of community questions and a measured amount of “official” response, it is great to see the core Android team proactively engaging the community on issues of importance. Kudos!
Of course, not everything is completely peaches and cream. While the Dev Phone 1 can be shipped to many international destinations, there seems to be an inordinate fee for doing so, even though some of that can be explained as custom duties and taxes and whatnot. Some community members still take the “I’m going to hold my breath and turn blue in the face until you fix the storage space issue”, which ignores the challenges of modifying a widely-deployed platform, let alone one with the security restraints required of mobile hardware.
But, all in all, it was a good week to be an Android (community member).
