Android may only be used in one mobile phone but interest in the
wider consumer product development community is starting to
grow.
Californian touchscreen start-up, Touch Revolution has created a
custom software installation based on Android which can be used in
a range of non-mobile consumer products.
This indicates that developers are looking to use the open source
Android operating system, created by Google, in products other than
mobile phones, the initial target for Android.
A key to Touch Revolution's software is that it will support a
wider range of screen sizes.
"Google has targeted
mobile handsets to date with Android,
and the baseline Android distribution has support for a limited set
of screen sizes. Touch Revolution has created its own custom
software installation based on Android and plans to support
features such as multiple screen sizes and non-mobile phone
support," said Touch Revolution.
Broadcom is another company involved in Android-related
developments and its Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM software interface has been
integrated in the latest version of the Android operating
system.
"We are committed to advancing the Android platform by contributing
our software and facilitating greater access to our combination
chips in the open source community. We expect a plethora of
products and applications to evolve from the connected Android
platform in the not-so-distant future," said Chris Bergey, director
of Broadcom's embedded WLAN line of business.
The attraction for Broadcom is that the Android platform includes
native support for its wireless chipsets.
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and FM technologies are all becoming features of
mobile phones, but the short range wireless capability would also
be applicable to non-mobile phone applications such as set-top
boxes and TVs.
Introduced last October by Google as
an open source operating system for mobiles, Android includes an
operating system, middleware and specifc mobile applications
including support for touch control and a framework for controlling
the download and installation of applications.
But the key is that the Android platform is available as an open
source project with an Apache 2.0 open source license option,
enabling third-parties to use, modify and distribute devices
running Android.