Survey: Mobile developers prefer Google
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Mobile developers go gaga over Google as they build location-based applications for phones, according to recent findings.
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(InfoWorld) - If companies likeÂ AppleÂ or even Italian fashion designerÂ PradaÂ can design a mobile phone, why not Google? Maybe it will. Rumors have been circulating in blogosphere for some time about the U.S. search-engine giant studying the possibility of designing its own phone. A recent job opening posted on the Google Web site appears to confirm the company may now be tinkering with more than just an idea but with some real hardware in its engineering labs. "Google is experimenting with a few wireless communications systems including some completely novel concepts," according to the Web-site recruitment text. "We are building a small team of top-notch Logic Designers and Analog Designers aimed at nothing less than making the entire world's information accessible from anywhere for free." Additional qualifications include "extensive circuit modeling and analysis experience, excellent programming skills, experience with switch power supply design" and a ham radio license. With the mobile phone soon to become the most popular device to access the Internet, it wouldn't be unthinkable for the world's largest search-engine company to want to grab a bigger piece of the action, according to some analysts. "In the wake of Apple and some other big-name brands moving into the handset business, why not Google?" said Phil Taylor, senior analyst with Strategy Analytics. Google and its arch rival Yahoo have been striking deals with both operators keen to offer search-engine services to their mobile phone customers and manufacturers interested in embedding search functions directly in their handsets, according to Taylor. Late last year,Â rumors emergedÂ about Google and French mobile phone operator OrangeÂ holding discussions about a possible partnership to design a co-branded, Google-enabled handset, he said. "If Google were to enter the market, it would likely work with an operator as Apple has done with Cingular in the U.S.," Taylor said. "And like Apple, Google would focus on designing the product and work with a contract manufacturer to produce it." But for Google to make a splash in the crowded mobile phone market, the company would need to design a product that sticks out among the rest -- as Apple is doing with itsÂ large-size, touch display, according to Taylor. "It will be a challenge to come up with a really new design," he said. Google could not be immediately reached for comment. Â
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By CHRIS BLACKHURST AS I WRITE this, mid-morning, I check. I've already used Google more than 10 times today. Is there any other product quite like it, anything so ubiquitous, so taken for granted? There's the phone, but I can switch the network. Petrol? I never bother with the brand.
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While Google's Android SDK for mobile applications could become a formidable competitor to Sun's own Java platform, Sun vice president James Gosling said Wednesday it is not possible for Sun to take a position on Android.Speaking at the Java Mobile &amp; Embedded Developer Days conference at Sun headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., Gosling cited insufficient information from Google.?"It's impossible to have a position [on Android], right, because there is no data," he said when interviewed at the event. "Over the last couple of years, Google's been showing their phone at telecom conferences all over the world and with different business models, all of which really scared the carriers and handset makers. And then with Android, they put out a bag of code with no business model."Unless the day comes when they say what they're going to do with it, it's just a bag of code sitting out there," Gosling said.There has been speculation that Android, which leverages Java, could fragment the Java platform. Android was announced Nov. 5 by the Open Handset Alliance. This group features Google and other participants looking to foster innovation on mobile phones and offer a better consumer experience, according to a press statement.An Android SDK has leveraged both the Eclipse open source platform and Java classes. Android applications are written using the Java programming language, according to a Google FAQ about Android dated Dec. 14.Google could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.A speaker at Wednesday's conference, however, gave Android a thumbs-up."I like some of the capability in the Android platform," said Sean O'Sullivan, CTO of Rococo Software, who presented on Java Specification Request (JSR) 82 pertaining to Java APIs for Bluetooth. "In particular, I like the ability to customize lots of different elements within the Android platform."Sun, meanwhile, is moving Java ME (Micro Edition) technologies to smaller systems such as microcontrollers, while Java SE (Standard Edition) capabilities are due to be offered on newer cell phones with greater functionality, Sun officials said at the conference. Java SE capabilities are expected to be included in the planned JavaFX Mobile platform for cell phones and devices.Also at the event, Sun announced the open-sourcing of the Squawk virtual machine, which is a Java ME-compliant virtual machine used in the Sun SPOT platform. Other components of Sun SPOT, including libraries, will be open-sourced at a later date after more due diligence, said Roger Meike, director of operations in Sun Microsystems Labs, which has overseen the Sun SPOT project.Sun hopes by releasing Squawk, developers will extend it beyond mobile phones. Squawk and Sun SPOT are already being used in applications such as robotics.Also open-sourced by Sun at the conference was the JXTA (Juxtapose) Java ME MIDP2.0 Proxyless Implementation. JXTA allows for setting up ad hoc networks of devices such as phones for applications, including discovery of participants in a conference, said Mohamed Abdelaziz, lead architect within the advanced development group of Sun's Java client software group.O'Sullivan noted the Marge project, a framework to help developers build Bluetooth applications in Java, is intended to facilitate use of JSR 82.
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InfoWorld - Mobile developers around the world are in an uproar over a change Vodafone has made in the U.K. that dramatically decreases the quality of their products and that they fear could prevent new and innovative mobile services from reaching the market.
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What is sexy? Mobile workshop We spent some time last week discussing requirements for mobile devices and got quite a bit of feedback on how to select and deploy the right kit for professional users.â¦
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Along with the unveiling of prototype handsets using Google?s Android mobile application development platform at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, came the promise -- one more time-- of write once, run anywhere.And while write once, run many gives application developers a maximum market for their applications, industry experts have their doubts that Android or any other mobile solution can fulfill the promise.Bob Egan, chief analyst with the Tower Group, points out that differentiation often takes place at the hardware level, such as optimizing battery management or display characteristics.Anthony Meadow, principal at Bear River Associates, a leading mobile development company said the ability to achieve write once, run many depends on how the hardware and software developers do their respective work, the problem being that everyone wants to be different. "How can a hardware manufacturer differentiate their product from everybody else's and at the same time be compatible with the standards they want to set?" he saidMaking it even harder to achieve standardization is the plain fact that handset manufacturers are not standing still. New features are constantly being added. Offering music downloads, pictures, and video is practically old school. Now, handset manufacturers and the carriers are talking about new security features like embedded security credentials for a boarding pass or entry to a company, or loading loyalty cards."When you start thinking of taking handsets to the next level, there is a whole new set of complexities," said Egan.So while a cross platform mobile SDK would be welcomed by developers, especially Google, which needs to put its services on as many devices as possible in order to grow, the hardware subtleties are the things that come up to bite people, adds Egan.Meadow at Bear River admits that if Google had a tough certification program, it would be possible to get much closer to the write once, run anywhere prize.Google certainly has a great deal of clout in many parts of the high tech industry, but is it powerful enough to make demands on the telecommunications industry as well? Both Microsoft and Palm tried that before with very stringent certification processes for their platform. But it never really worked. "They couldn't keep everybody in line," said Meadow. "It was a lot more pain and trouble to get J2ME apps running on different cell phones."While the Open Handset Alliance [OHA] -- founded by Google -- is touted as the way to get many companies on board, in fact there are only four handset manufacturers who are members: HTC, LG, Motorola, and Samsung.Tower Group's Egan says he hasn't seen anything out of the OHA to indicate it's doing anything different than what has been done in the past.?Meadow doesn't put much faith in the clout of the OHA either. "People join everything that comes along. It is an exercise in PR to be seen as supporting this and being associated with Google," he said.So while a write once, run many platform is the holy grail for developers, if you look at what happened with J2ME on smartphones, there were inherent limitations in how it was implemented as a platform, and for many developers it was a lot more pain and trouble to get J2ME applications running on different cell phones than it was worth.While both Egan and Meadow are withholding final judgment, they both say they haven't seen enough that is different -- despite that fact that this is Linux-based rather than Java -- to make them feel any more positive about Android's future success.
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Startups in the mobile search market explained why operators might not want to partner with Google or Yahoo.
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GOOGLE, the world&#39;s number one search engine, has lost its edge. That&#39;s the considered view of software engineers who have been testing an early version of Microsoft&#39;s MSN Search service, released last week.
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Internet search giant Google promises "faster, more relevant results" with its new mobile service.
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Function, features, features and functions Mobile Clinic Choosing mobile handsets that keep the increasingly pushy and tech savvy user base in the organisation happy â without destroying the hard work put in to keep networks and data secure â is one of the most emotive issues we've had to deal with in this month's Mobile Clinic.â¦
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A new interface and expanded file format support are among the new development tools for Google's mobile phone operating system.
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Here&#8217;s a nice overview piece &#8212; together with the requisite &#8220;who will win?&#8221; dramatic elements &#8212; from BusinessWeek, covering mobile search:  The emergence of Internet-connected mobile phones, or what&#8217;s known as the Mobile Web, is turning the wireless search business into a horse race&#8212;one that&#8217;s too close to call. Unlike its dominant role in search [...]
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OK, I&#39;ll be the first to admit I&#39;m probably out of my league writing about the latest Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) tool being offered for beta testing.
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INTERNET search firm Google is testing a new service in the US which allows people to use mobile phones to tap into its web search engine via text messages.
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Googleâs efforts to promote Android, an open and free platform for cellphones, is provoking rivals.
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What's in it for developers? Google invited developers to its London office for one of three workshops - the others being in Munich and Tel Aviv to spread the word and teach developers how to write for their new OS. Another event will be held in Boston on February 23rd (check at the blog for an announcement). Here's what they told us. The mantra for Android is that itâs "a complete and modern embedded OS, with a cutting edge mobile user experience, a world class software stack for building apps and open platform for developers users and industry". That of course breaks into lots of different specifics some of which are more solid than others. Computer people coming to mobile have a very different view of phone architecture to phone people adding features. Phone people see the phone functions - the GSM chipset, Bluetooth, DVB-H, for example, as a foundation, with drivers on top. Then there's an abstraction layer, an operating system, a user interface framework and the applications on top.â¦