Quote:
Originally Posted by kindlekitten
I'd just like to figure out what Android is all about and why I should be excited!
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I will try to answer your question, but I am not the most techy person around so this is the layman's view.
And yes, I do have a Verizon Droid phone, but I do not like reading on the LCD though Aldiko is a very cool reading app and experimenting was fun.
To my understanding Android is a linux based mobile operating system created by Google. This means it is much more open for any developer who feels like making something and for anyone who likes the option to make changes to their phone as much as their carrier permits, unlike an Apple product locked down by Apple and the carrier (I am not sure how the Microsoft mobile platforms are about that so I am not comparing them). Also, there is a minimal process to submit an app to the Android Market. Recently a few apps were forcibly removed from Android phones, but I read the reason to be that they put people's phones at risk and the developer had removed the app from the store already for that reason. Unlike an iPhone, all of the US carriers have Android phones to choose from. Unlike a Blackberry phone, Android did not start primarly as a business tool so there are lots of really fun apps available and it does not have the business image to get around in order to attract developers and customers. Something like Kindle for Android is a big deal because for people owning an Android phone instead of a iPhone when that app came out were disappointed (if only I bought that one instead) and now they have it and are happy. This goes for any number of other apps because the iPhone app store was there first.
Joining the tablet computer race are several tablets that use the Android operating system. Due to its linux nature of needing minimal hardware resources, and how available to the world Google makes Android, these tablets should be inexpensive, fast, and have lots of apps & options available that will be from the normal Android Market, not a special one. Therefore at the least the idea of them is quite popular. We'll see how the actual devices do as they are rolled out.
I hope this explains it a bit and if I got anything glaringly incorrect, with some luck someone more knowledgable will provide a correction.
