 Exactly a year ago today Google open sourced the Android codebase, so let's raise a glass to our little green buddy who's name, by the way, is rumoured around the Googleplex to be Mickey ;-) We've kept a close eye on developments during this period on the timeline, from his first baby steps, through all his tasty dessert incarnations right up to his huge buddies coming out party. Now it looks like the long-awaited Android Army is finally here, as was promised all along, so it's time to let our antennas down and party a little!
It was only 1 week after the open-sourcing of Android that the G1 was launched, and it tread a solitary path for the next 10 months being the only Android handset on the market. All the detractors focused on its looks and form factor, and to be honest it did have a heavy burden to carry for quite some time.
Then it was as if the floodgates had been opened with HTC and Samsung unleashing models which showed the sheer versatility of Android - these next models had no keyboards and one, the Hero, even sported a complete UI makeover - just the thing the carriers and other manufactureres wanted to see to be able to differentiate their products.
It hasn't all been plain sailing though. Last month we saw Google being forced to flex its corporate muscles. Open source always tends to attract the more adventurous coder, and none more so in the Android scene than Cyanogen. His mod often fixed bugs still present in the official Android releases, and had quite a large underground fan bse. Unfortunately his work was deemed by Google to cross the line when it came to distributing their closed apps, so they issued a C&D to him. This created a backlash in the open source community, which ended up being partially resolved when Cyanogen said he would desist, but offer a way for users to legally use his future work by cleverly combining it with the apps they had already paid for when they bought their Android device.
This brings us neatly to the present, as the amazing news that Android is presently available on 12 devices, with 50 due in the very near future. It is even being ported to a Fridge! Just the place to store all those yummy cream cakes ;-) |
