Don’t discount Android

Can Google’s Android be as disruptive to the mobile industry as Apple’s iPhone? The short answer is – you bet!

Here at TechWorld we love products that have a dramatic effect on the IT industry. Look at the Eee PC and the iPhone. Both are existing ideas that have been tweaked just that little bit so as to make the entire industry stand up and take notice.

In the case of the iPhone the best thing it did was open up the skies to more mobile data options for consumers.

Now, after the novelty has subsided, it’s ironic that the iPhone’s worst enemy may be its own creator.

During the past few weeks we’ve seen a slew of complaints from iPhone developers and users about how restrictive Apple’s iPhone App Store is. If Apple doesn’t like your app for some reason (probably because it competes with one from Apple) it’s immediately yanked from the online store.

This behaviour has led some to believe the iPhone is not a “platform” in the traditional sense as it restricts some forms of competition between applications.

In the meantime, Google’s much anticipated Android mobile platform is set to finally see the light of day in the form of a production HTC smart phone.

I use the term “platform” without emphasis when referring to Android because it already has at least four handset makers interested in using the operating system on their hardware and many other app vendors hacking on it too.

Unlike the iPhone, Android has an open SDK that’s available for Windows, Linux and the Mac. The last release was in August, but it is a work in progress.

The openness of the Android platform is its greatest asset. Developers and consumers will jump on a mobile device that allows them to develop, install and manage apps on their own terms and not be locked into a particular brand.

Android has the potential to fill a big gap between the ubiquitous, but closed, Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms, and the sexy, but very, very, closed iPhone.

Apple’s draconian behaviour threatens to relegate the iPhone to a high-end niche whereas Google’s open philosophy threatens to take the mobile software market to a new level.

But, hey, who’s complaining? With more options we all win.