Android cometh

[PM-Junkie]

This could set the cat among the pigeons...I'm willing to bet the folks at Redmond are paying attention. Open source and built with java api's - it looks very interesting.

Anyone know anything more about this fella?

linky

June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. is set to offer its free Android mobile-phone operating system for computers, opening a new front in its rivalry with Microsoft Corp. by challenging the dominance of the company’s Windows software.

Acer Inc., the world’s second-largest laptop maker, will release a low-cost notebook powered by Android next quarter, Jim Wong, head of information-technology products at the Taipei- based company, said yesterday. Asustek Computer Inc., pioneer of the sub-$500 laptops known as netbooks, also has developed a model that runs on Google’s software, Chairman Jonney Shih said.

The adoption of Android-based netbooks may eat into Windows’s share of about 90 percent worldwide for personal- computer operating systems. Google’s move escalates pressure on Microsoft as it prepares to introduce Windows 7, said Calvin Huang, an analyst at Daiwa Securities Group Inc.

“This is a negative and may force Microsoft to lower the price of Windows 7,” said Huang, who covers the computer industry from Taipei. “More and more vendors are adopting Android and non-Windows in their products, so this is a very good chance for Android to penetrate the PC market.”

[TykeMerc]

That could be interesting.

At the moment I can't see Microsoft losing their stranglehold on Operating Systems, there have been easy to install and operate free linux versions around for many years.
A Google offering might take a chunk of the market from M$ and Linux, but I doubt it will be gigantic at least for the foreseeable future. I'd be quite pleased to be proved wrong and see M$ lose a sizable market share as it would encourage them to produce better much software rather than the bloated junk we've had to put up with for years.

One big plus could, as the article says, help to drive down the cost of Windows 7.

[Amiga500]

iPhone.

HTH

[Churchill]

Microsoft don't just peddle operating systems, they provide an "application environment"!

[gingerjedi]

iPhone.

HTH

Crap battery, crap camera, old hat.

HTH

A whole raft of Android powered phones will hit the market over the next few months, they wouldn’t bother if it wasn’t an iPhone killer.

[swamp]

I've got an Android phone and it's pretty good. The (free) 3rd party apps are generally tulipe though, but I'm not sure things are much better on the iPhone. Biggest app for the iPhone is the iFart which says it all really.

The apps people use most on the phone are just the fat clients for websites. Eg Google Mail, Google Chat, YouTube etc. Ideally the user shouldn't really know they are using an 'app'; just using Facebook or whatever.

[Amiga500]

Crap battery, crap camera, old hat.

HTH

A whole raft of Android powered phones will hit the market over the next few months, they wouldn’t bother if it wasn’t an iPhone killer.

I have had the iPhone on since the day of it's release, and I also upgraded to the iPhone 3G on the day of it's release - the battery is fine, you just have to have the common sense to charge it overnight or keep a USB cable with your laptop or computer. The camera is also fine, it is actually quite good in good light conditions.

The apps are mind blowing, perfect user interface on the device across the board - I have downloaded chess/connect 4/strategy apps when on the train/bus and then played people over the Internet immediately, it's a flawless online experience over 3G - those in the know who have actually owned iPhone's know full well that it urinates on other smart phones from a great height - and of course running OS X it has a UNIX core so Android has no advantage there (actually based around FreeBSD so I would argue is better than any Linux distro). The people I find who don't like iPhones are people that don't have them or haven't used them.

HTH

[Amiga500]

I've got an Android phone and it's pretty good. The (free) 3rd party apps are generally tulipe though, but I'm not sure things are much better on the iPhone. Biggest app for the iPhone is the iFart which says it all really.

The apps people use most on the phone are just the fat clients for websites. Eg Google Mail, Google Chat, YouTube etc. Ideally the user shouldn't really know they are using an 'app'; just using Facebook or whatever.

That say's it all, the apps for iPhone are absolutely amazing, there really is an app for almost anything. It's actually quite mind blowing how much free content there is to download on the fly.

iFart which you referenced is probably one of the worst apps. Some great apps are Pocket God (updated weekly), Versus Chess (online), Connect 4 (online), Sims 3 (online), Two player air hockey (on one iPhone), TonePad (create music by touching pixels), SpawnLite, Ouch! Lite (throw a physics ragdoll about for points)... That's off the top of my head there are literally thousands...

[Moscow Mule]

I'm more interested in Moblin than Android on a netbook.

[gingerjedi]

Apple zealot alert

I would have bought an iPhone if it had a decent camera, I have a baby so that's one feature that’s far more important to me than any one of the 35,000 ‘apps’ hence why I've stuck with the N82 for now.

The world hadn't seen anything like the iPhone before and it is impressive but Android is still in its infancy, you'd be daft to think the people behind it weren't planning to give apple a run for their money.

One of the platforms rumoured features 800x480 WVGA screen plus 5mp camera, now that fits my needs unlike the iPhone.