Paid-for applications coming to Google’s Android Market

Currently, Google’s open-source Android OS’s Android Market, where you can download applications for your Android device (with T-Mobile’s G1 being the only one currently available), consists of only free applications. However, that, is about to change, in the United Kingdom, and United States of America (for now), at least. Because, later on in the month, developers will be allowed to release paid-for applications on the Android Market, with the UK and USA being the first countries to develop and download paid-for applications, with Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain following shortly thereafter.

Also, the Android Market will be available to new countries, such as Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and The Netherlands, in the coming weeks, with free, and paid-for applications set to be available.Lastly, Google will be launching an Android Market Website, for publishers, to allow them to target their applications at selected countries.

Source mobile-review

Also you can read this article from http://mobileagenda.org site.

Android netbooks on their way, likely by 2010

The image above shows a netbook Asus EEEPC 1000H running on Google’s mobile operating system Android. Huh? You thought Android was for mobile phones, right? Well, as we’ve written before, Google is planning to use Android for any device — not just the mobile phones.

Besides writing as freelancers for VentureBeat, we also run a startup called Mobile-facts. It took us about four hours of work to compile Android for the netbook. Having done so, we (Daniel Hartmann, that is) got the netbook fully up and running on it, with nearly all of the necessary hardware you’d want (including graphics, sound and the wireless card for internet) running. See the images below for further impressions.

Here’s the significance: Imagine the billion dollar market at stake here if Google can make good on this vision. Netbooks are basically small-scale PCs. For Silicon Valley myriad of software companies, it means a well-backed, open operating system that is open and ripe for exploitation for building upon. Now think of Chrome, Google’s web browser, and the richness it allows developers to build into the browser’s relationship with the desktop — all of this could usher in a new wave of more sophisticated web applications, cheaper and more dynamic to use. Ramifications abound: What does it mean for the stock price of Microsoft? Microsoft currently owns the vast majority of the desktop operating system market share? In recent weeks, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer repeatedly dismissed Android as competition to Windows Mobile.

Back to our experience in compiling Android for the Asus netbooks. It shows us that there is a big technology push to let Android run on netbooks under way.

Based on the progress we see in the Android open source project, we believe that getting an Android netbook to market is doable in as few as three months. Of course, the timing depends as much on decisions by the partners in Google’s OHA alliance and other developers contributing to Android, as it does on Google itself. It is these partners — including device makers and carriers — who decide how and when to adopt Android for different devices and markets. As we note below, Intel is one such contributor working on the adoption of Android to a notebook.

A mass production of the netbooks would be possible between three to nine months, depending on circumstances, two sources familiar with such matters told us. However, as we evaluate the progress of the various OHA projects, we expect conditions for a mass-market netbook to ripen in 2010, rather than in 2009. Right now a variety a of OHA members, announced and unnanounced, are working on projects to set up a sufficient ecosystem.

One important part of the ecosystem would be to have a set of well-functioning applications (an office productivity suite, for example). Google is mostly leaving applications development for Android to third parties (applications which run in the browser like Google Docs being the notable exception). At the rate things are going, we don’t see enough of these third parties developing applications for Android netbooks in the next 12 months. There have been recent predictions about Android netbooks appearing in 2009.

Background

In researching for our Android coverage at VentureBeat, we’ve participated in various Android developer groups and frequently play around with Android to understand some of the issues behind IT. The trigger for us to do the compilation was some news on the Android Porting Google Group. In it, Google developer Dima Zavin claimed a couple of days ago that he ported Android to an Asus EeePC 701. So we decided to have our own go at another Asus netbook.

“Compilation” is a process which needed for a machine such as a PC to be able to use an operating system and understand code. Zavin was compiling Android for a regular Intel CPU, which is what the Asus netbook runs on. The G1 phone, the first commercial mobile phone that Android runs on, however runs on a different processor: the ARM CPU. Taking Zavin’s work as credible, we assumed that compilation wouldn’t take that much time.

Android’s Linux core makes experimental compilations like ours possible. For example, compilations require something called drivers. Drivers are programs which are needed to communicate an operating system like Android with various computer hardware. There are already a lot of Linux drivers, and Linux is able to run on a lot of different computer architectures. Otherwise we’d have needed to build our drivers from scratch.

Android Netbooks coming, but more likely in 2010

We already argued back in August that Android wants to be on any device, not just a phone. Android is designed to run on any device in a category widely referred to as “embedded devices.”

The fact that various OHA partners have already developed Android enough to easily work on our netbook may be considered evidence enough that Google is getting increasing buy-in from industry players to realize this vision. We found two additional indicators that technology is being developed in this direction.

For one, we discovered that Android already has two product “policies” in its code. Product policies are operating system directions aimed at specific uses. The two policies are for 1) phones and 2) mobile internet devices, or MID for short. MID is Intel’s name for ‘mobile internet devices,’ which include devices like the Asus netbook we got Android running on.

The context for our finding can be found here. The important line is this one:
PRODUCT_POLICY
android.policy_phone
android.policy_mid

Another indicator for a coming Android netbook is that Intel already had the right drivers for MID chips in place. You can view some parameter information here.

Overall, we’re impressed with the relative ease of the compilation. Android code is very “portable” and neat. Mainy observers, specifically Symbian supporters, have opined that Android would have problems because of its “open source” nature, leading to “chaotic code” and tendency toward desintegration as developers take the OS in different directions. If true, that could give more controlled OS’s like Symbian, not to mention the iPhone’s, an advantage. Based on our experience with Android, we don’t see that danger mid-term. Quite possibly, Android competitor Symbian does not see that problem either, as the Symbian Foundation also decided to go down an open source path.

Pictures and Observations

After some additional work, the normal webkit browser is working fine on our Asus, and so is the music player. At first, we had problems to get both networking and sound running, though.

The Asus screen size is approximately 5 times bigger than the G1 screen. An adaption of the screen size was not an issue as Android did the adaption automatically.

The open source version of Android does not include Android Market. Therefore we haven’t yet downloaded any apps.

In “Settings,” we stumbled upon the feature “Select locale.” In it, we noticed that the following translations of Android are under way: Czech, German, English (Australia, United Kingdom, Singapore, United States), Spanish, Japanese, German and Dutch. Expect speculation on devices launching in these markets soon.

<!–
//OBSTART:do_NOT_remove_this_comment
var OutbrainPermaLink=”http://venturebeat.com/2009/01/01/android-netbooks-on-their-way-likely-by-2010/”;
if(typeof(OB_Script)!=’undefined’){
OutbrainStart();
} else {
var OB_demoMode = false;
var OB_showRec = true;
var OB_self_posts = false;
var OB_PlugInVer = “3.4.0.0P”;
var OBITm = “1216158061″;
var OB_Script = true;
var OB_langJS = “http://widgets.outbrain.com/lang_en.js”;
document.write (“<script src=’http://widgets.outbrain.com/OutbrainRater.js’ type=’text/javascript’><\/script>”);
}
//OBEND:do_NOT_remove_this_comment
//–>

HTC’s Second Android Model Might Come in Q1 2009

The first smartphone running Google’s Android OS, the T-Mobile G1, was actually designed and manufactured by HTC. This company is reportedly hard at work on a second model running this operating system.

HTC’s second Android-based device may debut in the first quarter of 2009, according to a report in the Chinese-language Economic Daily News, which cites unnamed sources at Taiwan-based securities houses as its source. Other sources say this product will launch in April.

The details of this model are unknown at this time.

HTC’s Commitment to Android

It comes as no surprise that HTC is working on additional smartphones running Android. Company executives and representatives has repeatedly said HTC is committed to this new platform.

It had originally hoped to have multiple Android-based models on the market this year, but the operating system ran into delays in development, which pushed back the release of all models based on it to the point that only the G1 made it out this year.

Still, HTC seems pleased with this first model. CEO Peter Chou told the Economic Daily News that it expects to sell over a million G1 units by the end of 2008. This device is available from T-Mobile in only two countries (the U.S. and U.K.), and has been on the market about two months.

This doesn’t mean HTC plans to drop Windows Mobile, the operating system that has been its bread-and-butter for many years, though. It will continue to release devices for both platforms.

Source brighthand

Google Introduces Mobile Ads For Android And The iPhone

Google is now formatting AdWords text and image ads for Android and iPhone mobile browsers. The ads can include mobile-only calls to action, and can be created from standard Google ads run on the Web. The ads will also work on other phones with full HTML browsers in the future as they become available. (Both the iPhone and the Android G1 have full browsers based on Webkit).

Vy sticking with full HTML browser phones, the links in the ads can continue to point to regular Web pages and still work in a mobile context. Advertisers can also run one single campaign across the Web and advanced mobile phones, and see where they get the best response.

More at the Google Mobile blog.

Source techcrunch

Google introduces developer G1 Phones

Google has just announced the availability of a developer phone that can be purchased by registered Android Developers. Costing $399 (roughly the same price as a contract-free G1 phone from T-Mobile), the phone offers an unlocked bootloader and allows easy flashing for the installation of custom Android builds. It is available for purchase in 18 international markets. You must join the $25 Android Marketplace program in order to purchase a device. Regular users interested in an unlocked phone are being warned that these units are intended for developers only and are to be used at your own risk.

Although developers can always purchase standard retail units, the new hardware allows you to test on a real device without contract and with any SIM you want. This latter point can be especially valuable for anyone who lives outside a normal T-Mobile service zone. G1 developer nyquildotorg told me that he wishes Google and T-Mobile had announced they were going to offer a dev unit before launching the G1, saying “I would totally have gotten one of those instead. Maybe that’s why they didn’t tell us.”

For some overseas developers, these units can represent a significant savings over retail prices. $425 (handset plus marketplace membership) equates to just £290. The G1 in the UK goes for £40 per month under contract, although that contract offers minutes and data. In most cases though, taxes, duties and shipping are extremely expensive. I’m told that shipping to Canada may run as high as $264.49.

In contrast to the Google, Apple has yet to introduce a developer iPhone—devs must sign a contract and pay full going rates. The first generation iPhone offered contract-free prepay units; the 3G does not. Some iPhone developers have ended up signing contracts and then pay the early termination fee to limit their cash outlay. Here, Google and T-Mobile have set an example that Apple really should follow. There’s no price break on the hardware for developers but at least they can acquire their unlocked units with a simple cash purchase.

G1 developers dream_kill, cmonex, and JesusFreke have already managed to install a developer-style bootloader onto retail units, making them effectively the same as the dev version. This only works, we’re told, if you already modified your firmware prior to RC30, the firmware update that Google released, which broke existing jailbreaks. G1 hacker Jashsu writes, “The unlocked bootloader (at the current time) is mainly for those who wish to modify the Android framework itself, recompile the entire OS, and test their patches on hardware. Theoretically however, it opens the doors for things like custom xda-dev builds of Android or possibly other operating systems like winmo, symbian, access linux, etc.”

Doing this kind of mod is not for the weak of heart and will appeal to a very limited audience of developers. Over at GotOnTheInter.net, the JesusFreke mod has the following warning: “If this goes wrong, you WILL DESTROY YOUR PHONE. Seriously. It will go PTHHTHTH. So don’t interrupt it, don’t let the battery die, etc.” Clearly bad things can and will happen to retail phones that do not perform the update properly, which should make the new hardware more appealing for those interested in doing so.

The Android Dev Phone 1 costs $399 with free shipping available in the US only. Participating markets include US, UK, Germany, Japan, India, Canada, France, Taiwan, Spain, Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Poland, and Hungary.