Google Android - Threat to iPhone & Windows Mobile???

Android is the one of the latest & revolutionary API from Google's magic box. It is one of the most talked product that Google has ever launched. With Android, Google has eventually entered into hardcore mobile applications. Android includes an operating system, middleware and key applications for mobile devices. The Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to develop applications that run on Android based mobile devices.

With Android, Windows Mobile and iPhone technologies will have tough competition as the Internet leader is coming big way into Mobile Applications.

Google claims Android is an "internet-style innovation and openness to mobile phones." Android is a very first free open-source project and fully customizable mobile platform which gives developer full freedom to develop the innovative mobile applications. Google Android allows developers to build application which can 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 features for users.

Android is built on the open Linux Kernel. Furthermore, it utilizes a custom virtual machine that was designed to optimize memory and hardware resources in a mobile environment. The platform will continue to evolve as the developer community works together to build innovative mobile applications.

Sneak Peak to Android

1. Android is built on the open Linux Kernel
2. Free Open Source Platform
3. Android does not differentiate between the phone's core applications and third-party applications.
4. User 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.
5. Developer can integrate information from the web with data on an individual's mobile phone such as the contacts, calendar, or geographic location -
6. Android can 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.
7. Developers can the location of the device, and allows devices to communicate with one another enabling rich peer-to-peer social applications.
8. 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.

Few Facts

1. Google has acquired Android, Inc., a small startup company based in Palo Alto, California, USA. in July 2005.
2. Open Handset Alliance, an alliance of several companies which include Broadcom Corporation, Google, HTC, Intel, LG, Marvell Technology Group, Motorola, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, and Texas Instruments, was formed with an objective develop open source platform for mobile applications.
3. Along with the formation of the Open Handset Alliance, it also unveiled their first product, Android, a mobile device platform built on the Linux kernel version 2.6..
4. Google released most of the Android code under the Apache license, a free-software and open source license.
5. On April 30, 2009, the official 1.5 update for Android was released. There are several new features and UI updates included in the 1.5 update:

* Ability to record and watch videos with the camcorder mode
* Uploading videos to Youtube and pictures to Picasa directly from the phone
* A new soft keyboard with an "Autocomplete" feature
* Ability to automatically connect to a Bluetooth headset within a certain distance
* New widgets and folders that can populate the desktop
* Animations between screens
* Wider availability of Copy and paste