Hello Android! (The Google Phone)

As expected Google (GOOG) today finally confirmed its long-awaited foray into the mobile phone business by announcing the Open Handset Alliance, a team of thirty three other leading technology and wireless companies who have agreed to share in Google's development of Android, a new open software platform aimed at bettering the user experience on today's mobile devices.

As part of the alliance, the companies strive to develop technologies that will significantly lower the cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services. Android is said to be a first step in this direction, and represents software that has been under development for three years now, dating back to a Silicon Valley startup called Android Inc. that Google acquired in 2005. The platform is essentially an integrated mobile "software stack" that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and user applications.

Built on the open source Linux Kernel, Android was conceived from the ground-up to be "truly open" and allow developers to create mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer. For example, an application could call upon any of the phone's core functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera, allowing for richer and more cohesive experiences for users.

Meanwhile, users will be able to fully tailor their Android-based phone to their interests -- they can swap out the phone's homescreen, the style of the dialer, or any of the applications. They'll also be able to instruct their phones to use their favorite photo viewing application to handle the viewing of all photos.

"Today's announcement is more ambitious than any single 'Google Phone' that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks," said Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. "Our vision is that the powerful platform we're unveiling will power thousands of different phone models."

"We see Android as an important part of our strategy of furthering Google's goal of providing access to information to users wherever they are. We recognize that many among the multitude of mobile users around the world do not and may never have an Android-based phone," said Andy Rubin, co-founder of Android Inc. and now Director of Mobile Platforms for Google. "Our goals must be independent of device or even platform. For this reason, Android will complement, but not replace, our longstanding mobile strategy of developing useful and compelling mobile services and driving adoption of these products through partnerships with handset manufacturers and mobile operators around the world."

The Android software stack is expected to provide handset makers and wireless operators an open platform they can use to develop new and innovative applications. The new software will compete directly with smartphone software from other companies like Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Nokia (NOK), Palm (Palm), and Research in Motion (RIMM). Unlike some of these mobile operating systems, Android will not be tied to a specific device. Instead, the software will be able to work on a broad array of devices from handset makes such as Motorola (MOT), HTC, Samsung, and LG just to name a few.

The idea is that through the developer's alliance, handset makers and cell phone operators will be able to develop more user-friendly services and devices that help bring more of the Internet's functionality onto mobile devices. And because of this open model, the companies involved also hope that by scaling the development, advanced functionality will be able to hit the market for less expensive mobile devices that will have more compelling and rich Internet services with more user-friendly interfaces.

The success of Google's initiative will depend heavily on the follow-up efforts of allied phone companies and handset makers.

For instance, Sprint (S) and T-Mobile USA (DT), the two U.S. carriers that have joined Google's alliance, see an opportunity to gain an edge on rivals. Sprint, the nation's No. 3 mobile operator, and T-Mobile, the fourth-largest carrier, trail market leaders AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ).

Sprint in particular needs to do a better job to differentiate itself. The carrier has lost more than 1 million of its most valuable customers over the past year, mostly to the top two players.

I believe that Android will revolutionize the cell phone market and bring amazing capabilities to the masses and to the mainstream, a thing that cannot be possible without the alliance and without choosing open source as the way to go for this project. I think this is a great step towards the right direction.

Have a look at this video explaining what the Android OS is all about.