Google Android Coming Soon

Google Android Coming Soon

Author JoeDigital

Android is Google's Mobile Operating Sytem

With Google Chrome getting talked about everywhere, now is a great time to point out that Google has another ambition waiting in the wings.  Android is due to be released soon, and rumors have it that the first smart phones to feature the new Google mobile operating system are already in production and will be arriving within weeks.

Android is a unique kind of operating system, more reminiscent of the early days of DOS computing than to traditional operating systems, because it it is SMALL.  Yes, the user interface will still be graphical, providing windows-like areas for program operation, and graphical menus for program browsing, but mobile devices demand high power with the smallest overhead possible.  Just as those early PCs couldn’t afford to give up precious memory for an elaborate operating system, today’s mobile devices have a similar problem.  They are truly mini computers, and through the use of web-based applications such as Google Docs, they can do most of the functions of full sized computers, but they can’t afford the memory waste that has become a trademark of traditional desktop operating systems.

Many industry analysts, in fact, have questioned whether Google Chrome is being released as a precursor to the Android operating system.  By leveraging Google onto mobile devices in this way, Google is becoming a key factor in something that hasn’t been available to most computer users since the early days of PCs: choice in operating systems.  

You see, Microsoft has literally owned the right to operating systems installed on computers manufactured using certain microchips.  That fact, while it may have been the shrewdest business deal in history, has meant that only people who were willing to “throw away” their operating system could install another, and for most the choice has been Linux, which is spoken of in awed tones by people who think it can only be used by professional programmers.

If all goes as scheduled, Android will be available through T-Mobile as early as September 23, 2008.  It will allow users of the smartphone to log in to Google and download apps that can be installed directly on the phone, and then accessed anytime, from any location.

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