wahlau's online hut

no big news now, if you subcribed to some tech news sites - the gPhone idea is no long a speculation, but soon a reality (2008!). For those geek-in-heart, the SDK should be out on 12th November 2007. It looks like that Google's approach is to provide software stacks over different platforms/phones - the middleware approach. The idea is simple - People are welcomed to provide software that further attract more users, google gets the data from users, and provide personalized advertisement and services.

Google already owns many good interesting Internet services - search, mail, map, business, calendar, office suites and etc. Now with a mobile platform it will move its user base from desktop to mobile. In Japan there are already questions about whether will PC disappear - people tend to have powerful mobile phones plus different multimedia consoles for different specific needs. An all-in-one (actually jack of all trade) personal computer seems to be not so good, since it is a general purpose machine. Google has done this "migration" since the Web 2.0 technologies emerged in 2003/2004. With its offering of different web services, some have already moved from traditional desktop applications to web-based applications. I even have students who share their report documents using Google Documents and report their time plans using Google Calendar.

Will this change the world? i believe it gives opportunities. We can explore more possibilties with the given platform, but at the same time we will need to wait for affordable connectivity. Other platforms, like Symbian or Linux Mobile (Openmoko for example) will have to move faster in order to compete with Google's plans. I know there is no need to start competing, but learning from each other and try to be better are in a way still competition. One fine day i would hope to see interoperability between these platforms - then ultimately the users/customers win, and platform/service providers win too. Only then healthy progress and competition will continue to improve and serve the potential users.

If Google's gonna keep its platform open, as open as in FOSS, it would be a great advantage. Why? it is not about loosing your technology to others. It is about support and community based collaboration in improving the software and services. Imagine being able to choose things one needs, or manage to change things when stuffs stop working - they are necessary freedom one should have. Money should still flow, but without sacrificing the wishes and needs of the users.

Let's keep an eye on the upcoming progress...