Switch to Android

Alright, let me come to the point. What’s it all about?

“Google Android” is this projects name but when it was started it’s just “Android”. It’s a project lead by Open Handset Alliance. It’s all about building an ultimate OS for mobile phone. They have already made the core OS, and they thought it would be great if everyone could contribute in it, so they decided to make it public and guess what it’s the best part of the Android project. Like Mozilla they just made it public because the more the people involved the more the usability of the project and that’s not all it less prone to bugs.

What is the Open Handset Alliance?

A group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies who have come together to accelerate innovation in mobile and to offer consumers a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience. Together they have developed Android, the first complete, open, and free mobile platform and now they have joined the technological giant Google!

What is Android and how is it different?

Android is a complete mobile phone software stack. It includes everything a manufacturer or operator needs to build a mobile phone. Android will be made available as open source via the Apache v2 license. Android was designed from the ground up to enable the best user experience possible on a mobile phone. It leverages web and Internet content to provide advanced services such as mobile mashups.

Why Android?

Android™ will deliver a complete set of software for mobile devices: an operating system, middleware and key mobile applications. An early look at the Android Software Development Kit (SDK) is now available.

Open
Android was built from the ground-up to enable developers to create compelling mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer. It is built to be truly open. For example, an application could call upon any of the phone's core functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera, allowing developers to create richer and more cohesive experiences for users. Android is built on the open Linux Kernel. Furthermore, it utilizes a custom virtual machine that has been designed to optimize memory and hardware resources in a mobile environment. Android will be open source; it can be liberally extended to incorporate new cutting edge technologies as they emerge. The platform will continue to evolve as the developer community works together to build innovative mobile applications.

All applications are created equal
Android does not differentiate between the phone's core applications and third-party applications. They can all be built to have equal access to a phone's capabilities providing users with a broad spectrum of applications and services. With devices built on the Android Platform, users will be able to fully tailor the phone to their interests. They can swap out the phone's homescreen, the style of the dialer, or any of the applications. They can even instruct their phones to use their favorite photo viewing application to handle the viewing of all photos.

Breaking down application boundaries
Android breaks down the barriers to building new and innovative applications. For example, a developer can combine information from the web with data on an individual's mobile phone -- such as the user's contacts, calendar, or geographic location -- to provide a more relevant user experience. With Android, a developer could build an application that enables users to view the location of their friends and be alerted when they are in the vicinity giving them a chance to connect.

Fast & easy application development
Android provides access to a wide range of useful libraries and tools that can be used to build rich applications. For example, Android enables developers to obtain the location of the device, and allows devices to communicate with one another enabling rich peer-to-peer social applications. In addition, Android includes a full set of tools that have been built from the ground up alongside the platform providing developers with high productivity and deep insight into their applications.