- Android Support on Non-Android Mobiles
- Feature Phones Up First
- Android Content Beamed Across the Whole Living Room
Android has shaped the current smartphone and apps market through its open development, and like all leaders, has imitators coming out of the woodwork. However the latest copycat combined with the latest support service could change the whole landscape of what it means to be an Android device.
Through Android, Google was able to drive a massive amount of developer effort to its platform, but it appears all that work can be harnessed by Google’s rivals. At CES, RIM said its PlayBook tablet could run any Android app, and now we’ve heard how. The QNX system that is the basis for the PlayBook’s OS can run Dalvik, the same virtual machine as Android, allowing apps to work across its platform as well.
Myriad, a mobile java company, is taking this idea to the next level, announcing "Alien Dalvik" that allows Android apps to run on a wide range of non-Google handsets, and possibly tablets too.
Its Dalvik implementations will open the Android experience to a cornucopia of feature phones, as well as some smartphones, but feature phones will be the main focus because they are key to Myriad’s Java apps business.
These feature phones will create "new revenue opportunities for mobile operators, OEMs and app store owners," said Myriad.
The industry has been searching for a true ‘write once, install everywhere’ platform and this new iteration of Dalvik seems to be a key to that future.
Feature Phone Functionality
Myriad said that running Android apps on third-party operating systems will not compromise their performance and that they will run without any hiccups.
"From a user perspective, Alien Dalvik is completely transparent," said the company. Users will perceive them to be of the same quality as native apps. It appears as if some apps will be able to run completely unmodified, "allowing application store owners to quickly kick start Android application store services by simply repackaging Android Package (APK) files."
"The proliferation of Android has been staggering, but there is still room for growth. By extending Android to other platforms, we are opening up the market even further, creating new audiences and revenue opportunities," said CEO Simon Wilkinson.
Rovi Makes This Damn Important
Myriad’s announcement didn’t mention Rovi, and we doubt that it is looking to the digital home entertainment company for anything right now, but that’s exactly where everyone’s sights should be.
Around the time of Myriad’s announcement, Rovi announced plans to enable users to stream content from Android apps and devices to connected TVs, STBs and other smart devices.
Rovi said its Connected Platform technologies will be available pre-ported on Android, enabling users to share and stream entertainment content from their Android devices to a range of connected devices throughout the home.
According to Rovi’s announcement, "Music, photo and video files stored on Android devices powered by Rovi Connected Platform will be capable of sharing media over the consumer’s home network for streamed playback on connected entertainment products such as digital TVs, set-top boxes, digital video recorders, Windows 7 PCs and network-attached storage (NAS) devices."
The platform will also let consumers access, manage and stream content to and from their connected devices and Android mobiles.
Rovi executive VP of product management and marketing, Corey Ferengul said, "Consumers want easy-to-use media experiences and at the same time are growing the number of devices they use to enjoy entertainment. Sharing among devices is complicated and must be simplified to meet market demand. Pre-porting Connected Platform on the Android platform is a significant step in bridging this gap in the Android ecosystem, enabling device manufacturers to easily integrate robust, standards-based, connected-device capabilities into their mobile offerings."
The Rovi Connected Platform is pre-ported to Android version 2.1 and includes a reference user interface to enable CE manufacturers to customize their offerings. The solution is scheduled to be available for licensing later this quarter, and developers we contacted said it would not be a major issue for feature phones and smartphones running Myriad’s Alien Dalvik. The only issue they foresaw was attaining a license, but didn’t think this would be an issue because of who would be initially using Myriad’s offering.
Consider extending Android functionality to feature phones, and Rovi has a huge market that just got even bigger. Toss in its ownership of Sonic Solutions, very popular in Europe and Asia, and it gets even more interesting.
These markets are key for this expansion because Myriad has said it will initially bring its Alien Dalvik to MeeGo devices.
To MeeGo We Go
The first commercial target for the new virtual machine will be MeeGo, and other platforms will follow.
Accompanying its release, Myriad showed a demo video of Alien Dalvik running Android applications on an N900, which received the proper compatibility updates in the PR 1.3 release of Maemo 5.
As Nokia struggles to define a future for itself and its mobile platform, Alien Dalvik offers a way for Nokia to secure more apps without having to change to a new OS or release new handset models.
Myriad CTO Benoit Schilling is a former Nokia CTO and architect of its Qt multi-platform developer framework — which Alien Dalvik relies on. Schilling was also one of the vocal proponents of Nokia and Microsoft creating an alliance to better leverage Windows Phone 7 and MeeGo via a developer kit and toolset that cross both platforms.
The software will be demonstrated on a Nokia N900 at the upcoming Mobile World Congress.
Just One Thing
There’s just one thing that might upend the whole shebang: a lawsuit against Google from Java owner Oracle.
Google adopted Dalvik for Android, creating some space between its OS and the rest of the Java world. Now, there is a lawsuit covering Android and Dalvik brought by Oracle, claiming that Google infringes on Sun patents and copyrights.
Myriad in turn sued Oracle, saying that it was being overcharged for the use of Java. Google is almost certainly in on this action, as Myriad’s legal counsel Scott Weingaertner is also representing Google in its Oracle battles.
Oh what a tangled Web we weave...
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