I’ve been an avid promoter of the Android OS up to the point of being ridiculed within the company – whenever someone has something good (or bad) to say about Android, they make sure I know about it.
I don’t really mind. I think that Android has a place in the world, especially in 2010 and in the coming years – until something better pops up. For now, it is the best game in town if you are a handset vendor (unless you’re called Apple).
I thought all along that Android fits in consumer electronics – in everything that has a display and an IP network: televisions, set-top boxes (they don’t have a display, but they are connected to one), media phones, etc.
Well, to make a long story short – a few weeks ago I had to give a short internal presentation about Android , and as part of it explain why Android is the operating system of choice for vendors and not… Linux. And it got me thinking: why do I promote a display as part of an Android device? Doesn’t it make sense to have Android OS in devices that have no display attached to them?
What would happen if my home DSL router would come with an Android OS on top of it? Would I then be able to access it via the browser, or a Nexus One for that matter, and install specialized applications on it? A few great apps come in mind: a small SIP server, VPN, a micro web browser instead of that Opera Unite initiative.
It makes too much sense to me – the ability to tweak and customize, as a user, my devices simply by having an application store attached to them – with or without a dedicated monitor. And I might not be the only one. Here’s Simon Judge quoting from a student technical report:
“You will never find such a rich set of user APIs for Networking, UI, Bluetooth, OpenGL etc. Furthermore, since Android runs on a Linux Kernel, you can still use all your existing native C/C++ projects as you would with any other embedded Linux system.”
While Apple has changed the computing paradigm we are so used to, with their AppStore and iPad, it is going to be Android that is really going to make a difference – especially if it ends up throwing away naked Embedded Linux systems from embedded devices.
Tags: Android, Application store, Bluetooth, browser, consumer electronics, development, Embedded Linux, Operating system, set-top box, VoIP
Comment or trackback
1. Eelco | July 9th, 2010 at 8:26 am
IMO it does not make sense to use Android on a system without a display. What primarily differs Android from other Linux environments is the UI layer and the app store.
I believe for embedded systems there are better alternatives than Android. Take a look at OSGi for example, which is designed especially for home gateways but can be used on other (embedded) platforms as well. I believe the API support is even richer on OSGi because you have the complete Java APIs to your disposal. Heck, there is even an OSGi application for Android
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