Google's Open Handset Alliance gains 14 new members
The Open Handset Alliance, which promotes the use of Google's Android mobile operating system, added 14 new members this week, including Vodafone, the world's largest mobile operator.
(Credit:
Open Handset Alliance)
In addition to Vodafone, new members of the alliance are AKM Semiconductor, ARM, ASUSTek Computer, Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International, Huawei Technologies, Omron Software, Softbank Mobile, Sony Ericsson, Teleca, and Toshiba.
Members in the alliance are expected to either "deploy compatible Android devices, contribute significant code to the Android Open Source Project, or support the ecosystem through products and services that will accelerate the availability of Android-based devices," according to the alliance's press release.
Google started the alliance a year ago when it officially unveiled Android, the open source operating system it created. The Android software is designed to provide handset makers and wireless operators an open platform on which they can develop new and innovative applications.
The alliance was formed to help support the creation of these applications, resulting in richer features that are less expensive to develop and deploy. Thirty-four companies initially signed on to the alliance. And now the group boasts 47 members.
Nearly all the major handset makers have signed on, including HTC, LG, Motorola, and Samsung. U.S. wireless operators T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel are also members. Neither AT&T nor Verizon Wireless is an Open Handset Alliance member. But Verizon has said an Android phone could find its way onto its new open wireless network, which offers a more streamlined certification process.
T-Mobile and HTC announced in October the G1, the first phone to use the Android operating system. And more handsets are expected to come on the market from a variety of handset makers in 2009.
Adding new members to the alliance should help boost Android's presence in the mobile market. But the operating system has a long way to go in terms of gaining significant market share. Nokia's Symbian operating system still dominates the global market. And Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry operating systems are becoming tough competitors in the smartphone category.
Marguerite Reardon has been a CNET News reporter since 2004, covering cell phone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the ongoing consolidation of the phone companies. E-mail Maggie. 
Android seems like a no-brainer to adopt. Everyone benefits from it being a community developed, small, fast, stable, free Linux platform with an application delivery platform AND, because it's open source, it can be custom tailored for the desired handset look and feel.
2009 looks like it could be very exciting for Android.
After actually reading up on Symbian , I think it is going to be the standard. Symbian already dominates the market and has gone open source.
One of many problems with Android/Linux for a phone platform is the lack of a signaling stack.
Symbian OS was built to follow three design rules: the integrity and security of user data is paramount, user time must not be wasted, and all resources are scarce. This led to a continuation of the use of servers, a microkernel, a request and callback approach to all services, an absolute division of user interfaces from system or application services, reuse and openness, extensibility, and robust management and resource recovery to support extended always-on operation. For hardware the OS is optimised for low-power battery-based devices and for ROM-based systems (e.g. features like XIP and re-entrancy in shared libraries). Applications, and the OS, follow an object-oriented design, MVC.
Later OS iterations diluted this approach in response to market demands, notably the introduction of a real-time kernel and a platform security model in versions 8 and 9.
There is a strong emphasis on conserving resources, using Symbian-specific programming idioms such as descriptors and a cleanup stack. There are similar techniques for conserving disk space (though the disks on Symbian devices are usually flash memory). Furthermore, all Symbian OS programming is event-based, and the CPU is switched off when applications are not directly dealing with an event. This is achieved through a programming idiom called active objects. Similarly the OS approach to threads vs. processes is driven by reducing overheads.
Symbian OS EKA2 supports sufficiently-fast real-time response such that it is possible to build a single-core phone around it?that is, a phone in which a single processor core executes both the user applications and the signalling stack. This is a feature which is not available in Linux. This has allowed SymbianOS EKA2 phones to become smaller, cheaper and more power efficient.
And OS, who else, except google, has the chance to replace windows? But Google a bit late in action, they should have releases as desktop OS while microsoft is beaten with the rejected Vista. When vienna (windows7) come, the chance probably is gone.
I can see ICE AGE coming for the microsoft , RIM which is like a Mammoth , sooner they know better for them.
- by DarkArkStar December 16, 2008 12:50 AM PST
- I'm very excited about this.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(9 Comments)