The blogshere is all a twitter about Google’s recent Android announcement. Google certainly knows how to get people talking; first start the rumours about the gPhone, then announce something different – Android, but leave the details sufficiently vague so speculation starts about the real meaning. Nov. 12 is when the Android SDK becomes available, so we will have to wait until then for the specifics.
One of the main discussion points is how Java plays in the Android platform. Google has been sufficient vague; there is no mention of Java on the Android web site, but it is mentioned in interviews.
I tend to agree with most of what David Berlind wrote in his article ‘Is a Java power play lucking beneath the Open Handset Alliance’. Sun does not seem to be a part of OHA and if Java is the base for the Android platform, this is more competition for Sun in the mobile and Java space.
NOTE: The one thing David wrote that I don’t agree with is the possibility for Google to take a Java version licensed under GPL v3 and relicense it under APL v2. The GPL v3 license compatiblity is one way, Apache license code can be relicensed under GPL v3 but not the other way. I may be wrong on this but I think it is true.
The question of how Eclipse participates is of interest to me. If indeed if it is a Java based platform, I know someone will create Eclipse based tools for Android. It is just a matter of who and when. Next week, the release of the SDK will clear up a lot of the details.
