Is there life in Google's Android?

Given the hype around anything with a single-letter prefix — m-commerce, e-learning, iPhone — last year's speculation over a Google "gPhone" sent the blogosphere into overdrive. The Android mobile phone platform that Google actually launched, however, took things in quite a different direction.

Far from trying to take on the world by itself — something that Google, with its numerous online properties and strong brand name could certainly have attempted — Android has been positioned as a catalyst for innovation around open design.

Its open philosophy puts it diametrically opposed to proprietary platforms such as Windows Mobile, Symbian OS — the market leader thanks to its ubiquity on Nokia phones &mdash, RIM's Blackberry OS and, more recently, Apple's iPhone. All can be built upon by developers, but their inner workings remain well-protected secrets.

Google hopes to buck the proprietary trend by offering an open mobile platform, built on Android and supported by a coalition of vendors unified under the banner of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA). The search giant believes the OHA will lead to more user-friendly devices designed for specific applications, instead of devices carrying the burden of everything-but-the-kitchen-sink platforms.

Unless the whole package, including looks, functionality and of course stability are there, then there is little chance for Android to succeed.

Mark Novosel, telecommunications analyst, IDC.

"By creating a complete mobile platform that is open and closely integrated with the internet, everyone in the mobile ecosystem will benefit," a Google spokesperson said. "OEMs and carriers will be free to customise the platform to bring innovative new handsets to market faster and at a much lower cost. And with a broader baseline set of functionality, developers will be free to focus their efforts on innovative and differentiating features."

Industry dynamics
That's the official line — but will it fly in the real world?

In dog-eat-dog mobile world, where partnerships are hard won and fiercely defended, Google must negotiate a much more complex minefield of vested interests and technological legacy: witness AT&T's hard-fought iPhone exclusive, for example, or Sony Ericsson's seven-year wait to step outside its commitment to its own proprietary software and the Symbian OS with the Windows Mobile Xperia X1 smartphone.

Facing these dynamics, Google is looking to mobile market outsiders for support. Its 34 OHA members include handset makers HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung as well as nine semiconductor developers, seven mobile operators, and 10 software and application providers.

OHA isn't the only open mobile platform in development, however: Android faces stiff competition from the LiMo (Linux Mobile) Foundation, a consortium founded in early 2007 whose members include Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, Samsung and Vodafone.

Although it has fewer members, Ovum principal analyst Adam Leach believes the LiMo Foundation could be Android's worst enemy, particularly with the endorsement of the high-profile Mozilla Foundation, creators of open source stalwarts like Firefox and the Thunderbird email client.

"The LiMo Foundation's heritage is firmly entrenched within the mobile industry," he said shortly after the recent Mobile World Congress, where LiMo Foundation members announced 15 different LiMo-enabled handsets. "The expertise provided by these companies is essential to provide LiMo with the open source credentials it needs to be taken seriously by the open source community."

If you build it, will they come?
Whether or not the open source community takes either effort seriously will be irrelevant, however, if proponents of LiMo or Android fail to successfully win the hearts of consumers weighing the phones against flashy devices from better-known brands.

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