I’ve received a number of questions in the past week about Google’s Open Handset Alliance and Google’s just-released SDK for the platform, called Android. You can even find me quoted at the end of this ZDnet story.
We’re really excited about Android and the potential it offers of expanding the smartphone market with an open platform. The more vibrant the smartphone market becomes relative to mass market phones, the better off developers like SplashData who focus on high end applications will be. And we certainly have heady times in the smartphone space with Apple’s iPhone, Motorola’s Q line and investment in UIQ, RIM’s new consumer-focused BlackBerry phones like the Pearl and Curve, Palm’s inexpensive Centro, and now Google’s Android.
I think Google did a first-class job with the Android launch: a polished site, strong technical documentation, clear instructions, and even a few gee-whiz video clips to whet our appetites. And the $10 million application contest is very clever. Some may call it crass, but what better way to excite phone developers before you have real phones to show? We’re looking forward to working with Google and its Open Handset Alliance partners like Sprint, T-Mobile, Motorola, and HTC.
– Morgan
