The next couple of decades saw the smartphone rise to popularity primarily in the business world where companies like Research In Motion, Nokia and Handspring dominated what was in reality a niche market. And the cell phone itself was becoming veritably ubiquitous with an estimated 3 billion handsets worldwide. The introduction of Apple’s IPhone built on the existing market with a new sleek design, new functionality and a generous helping of fun. The wildly popular IPhone added fuel to what was already an incredibly fast growing market. RIM’s Blackberry had become the de facto standard for business and personal connectivity. But the IPhone made it fun, stylish and accessible to everyone.
Like most good things there were some down sides to the burgeoning smartphone market. One of the main issues was the very closed and controlled nature of the operating systems and tools used to develop functionality for the smartphones. The companies with the best products limited access to the fundamental tools and information needed to make functionality, also known as applications, or “apps” for the phones. Most companies required expensive licensing fees, strict development controls and all reserved the final word on whether or not a developer’s hard work would ever be used on a certain device.
Many developers and observers begin to feel that the strict gatekeeper mentality of most of the industry was actually stifling innovation and killing quality. Many people had “great ideas” for what they wanted their Smartphone to do, but only a select few had the resources and knowledge to make those ideas a reality. Even those with the knowledge and resources were frequently turned away simply because their vision did not mesh with the cellphone hardware and operating system creator’s vision.
Like most good things there were some down sides to the burgeoning smartphone market. One of the main issues was the very closed and controlled nature of the operating systems and tools used to develop functionality for the smartphones. The companies with the best products limited access to the fundamental tools and information needed to make functionality, also known as applications, or “apps” for the phones. Most companies required expensive licensing fees, strict development controls and all reserved the final word on whether or not a developer’s hard work would ever be used on a certain device.
Many developers and observers begin to feel that the strict gatekeeper mentality of most of the industry was actually stifling innovation and killing quality. Many people had “great ideas” for what they wanted their Smartphone to do, but only a select few had the resources and knowledge to make those ideas a reality. Even those with the knowledge and resources were frequently turned away simply because their vision did not mesh with the cellphone hardware and operating system creator’s vision.
Google and the Android Operation System
On November 5th 2005 Google in conjunction with the Open Handset Alliance announced the release of a new operating system for cellular smartphones called Android. The radical part of the announcement was that the operating system would be “open source.” This meant that anyone one could use it. Anyone could change it, add to it, alter it and become a part of its growth process. More importantly all of the development tools and capabilities would be available to anyone. For the very low price of absolutely free. The idea was so incredibly radical that many observers and analysts predicted a fairly niche market for the operating system. However, on the side of Android’s likelihood of success was the fact that Google was already a powerhouse technical innovator. Google had by 2005 brought search technologies and information management technology from the dark ages into a sleek and efficient modern world. Google also had fairly deep pockets and a whole lot of experience marketing and creating innovation adoption. Add to the mix the fact that the Open Handset Alliance had many heavy hitters in the cell phone industry such as Motorola, T-Mobile, Texas Instruments and HTC all onboard with the idea of creating a cell phone that was not only functional but very adaptable.
Android itself was an operating system based on the known stability of Linux. Operating Systems provide the basic interaction with hardware. They also act as the “middle man” between users and computers or cellphones. Android was “open” so that anyone could see how these processes worked unlike its main competitors such as the dominant Symbian, RIM’s blahblah, Palm OS, and Apple’s IOS.
A core idea with the Android operating system was that developers should be able to make whatever functionality or App for the operating system that they could imagine. The SDK (Software Development Kit) the tools used to create Android Apps was released for anyone to use as long as you had the programing knowledge to do so. This philosophy was a fundamental shift in the cell phone world where handset developers and operation system developers frequently were the sole arbiters of who should and should not be allowed to have an application on a certain handset.
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