I, Android

Google Mobile Platform = ISV Heaven

If it were as hard to develop applications for a PC as it is for a cell phone, we’d still be back in the DOS era. There’d be far fewer ISVs, a relatively small number of broadly popular applications and an Internet that was still the plaything of scientists and command link geeks. And the multi-billon online advertising industry probably wouldn’t exist.

That bleak picture is why today’s unveiling of Android by Google and its more than 30 industry partners is so exciting. Sure, there’s a bleak history of industry consortiums talking much and delivering little, but there’s a huge incentive for Google to make this happen.

A truly open platform for the cell phone will encourage the development of innumerable applications, many of which will support advertising. And serving ads, of course, is one of Google’s core strengths.

Some people may be disappointed that there was no introduction of a gPhone. But that’s not important. If Android, an open source platform, is successful, the hardware will follow.

As reported by IDG News Service, the open-source platform will have a complete set of components, including an operating system, middleware stack, customizable user interface and applications.

If the platform turns out to be free, or at least very cheap, it could certainly reduce the cost of powerful cell phones, and make them even more popular with consumers. There will be a trade off for consumers however: a lot more ads.

Android will pose an interesting challenge to Apple and its iPhone, to Nokia and to Microsoft, all companies with a very different approach to mobile devices and software.

In general, I haven’t been impressed with Google’s efforts to challenge Microsoft in the arena of productivity applications. This effort, however, does impress me and it merits a good deal of attention from investors as well as developers.