Open Android and Google’s Android ...

The significant dissimilarity that many appear to ignore or they are acknowledging now: Android is an open source. Any person can freely use the open source code to create an Android build and run it on any piece of hardware. If I wanted to implement android platform on an old phone or tablet assuming that, I knew how to do it – I could. So can you. This is exactly what handset makers in china have been doing. Taking the freely available AOSP, or Android Open Source Project, code and selling phones that run on it.

Amazon has been doing this for a few years till date. That Amazon Kindle Fire tablet runs the freely available version of Android. Amazon has built its own interface on top of Android and its own apps as well. We can browse the web with the Silk browser or check our Gmail with the Kindle email app.

But android phones, tablets or the open source android products cannot run Google’s own suite of apps, unless they are licensed. That means paying Google a fee for Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar and access to the Google Play Store. It also means that Google has authority over what devices can have such access through licensing. In other words, it can set minimum device requirements for licensing. Amazon is a perfect example of a company choosing not to license Google’s apps so it enjoys total freedom for its hardware design.

Let’s have a look at the software licensing. In the manner how Google licenses its mobile apps, Microsoft licenses Windows and Windows phone. Microsoft is paid by the companies to put the software on their devices. And Microsoft has minimum requirements for each, just as Google does.  We cannot run Windows Phone 8 on a device with a core processor.Microsoft requires a dual-core chip. The handset must have a GPS radio and a minimum of 512 MB of memory as well.

The reason for Microsoft to do this is identical as Google’s. To create a minimum common hardware denominator that guarantees a certain user experience. If Microsoft were to let budget handset makers put windows phone on cast-off hardware, it would make windows phone itself look like junk.

Android has indeed been open since 2008. And Google has had a licensing program for its android apps since that time. The program may have changed over time as the market matured, but that is to be expected. The major concern now is that reported details of Google Android app licensing is showing up. With irrespective of the reasons, many think that android is not an open source.

In 2010, mobile location company Skyhook accused Google over four patents and claimed that Google was not contending fairly by trying to push its own Wi-Fi location services on hardware partners. Internal documents later emerged showing that a Wi-Fi location database was integral to Google’s own Android strategy.

While incidents such as these do little to answer the question of Google’s own openness, the fact remains that Android itself is open to those who wish to build their own smart phones, tablets, watches or other devices.