Android- not just for phones anymore
courtesy of VentureBeat
We have predicted that Android, the operating system from Google and the Open Handset Alliance, would break out of the phone world in the future. Android has the extensibility and open source roots to allow it to be ported for other devices like set-top boxes. We may start seeing Android invade the netbook space (sorry Psion) sooner rather than later as the group at VentureBeat have already ported Android to an EEE PC.
They have written an article describing how they got Android to run on the netbook and detail the functionality they obtained by doing so. They go on to state that Android-based netbooks could be produced as fast as three months but it’s more likely we’ll see them in 2010. I’ll bet we do see them too. The appearance of Android netbooks would certainly shake the landscape up quite a bit.
The wildcard in the Android netbook scenario is Google Chrome. Should that be ported in a full version this would make an Android-equipped netbook a big competitor to the current WinXP and Linux versions.
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would it really need a full version of chrome?
iirc, there is already webkit hiding under the hood, so the only real diff would be the ui.
I think we’ll see an Android netbook come to market in 2009, perhaps by mid-year. The netbook wave is still rising and Google will want to ride it.
There is already a port to the N810. I would suspect the N800 will be added shortly after the soft keyboard in the cupcake release.
A full web browser is going to be essential to sell the netbook to the world.
then it boils down to ones definition of a “full” browser…
basically its the same funny thing as that FIE that chippy loves to push. it all comes down to what one put into the word “full”…
So what would an Android netbook offer that a Linux netbook couldn’t?
a single pool of software?
thats the current problem, mostly. as most are using very “obscure” distros by default, the access to pre-packaged software is somewhat limited.
also, with the software itself being java based, one do not really need to recompiled, unless im deeply mistaken.
that is, no matter if its a x86 netbook or a ARM netbook, it still can make use of the android marketplace.
I would love to see this Android netbook edition.
@turn.self.off — yes, but software designed for the screensize of, say, the G1 wouldn’t be something I’d want to run on a netbook (and vice versa).
@oliver worried about inflexible guis?
seems that the google stuff adapts nicely at least…