Could harsh-talking Symbianite John Forsyth have been right about wary developers eyeing up the Android platform with less than stellar enthusiasm?  CNET News spoke to a number of mobile programmers about the prospect of Google’s OHA and the upcoming gPhone SDK, and the feedback seems to indicate more than a little reticence:

“Right now, Android just adds to the headache of developing different versions of our applications for different operating systems … It will be just another platform we have to support” Kay Johansson, CTO, MobiTV

Analysts are already glancing nervously at earlier attempts to standardise the mobile app space, particularly the work of Sun Microsystems, whose Java programming language promised “write once, publish many”, and OHA-member Qualcomm who developed the BREW app development environment.  Despite the best efforts of both companies, neither has managed to fundamentally change the adaptation and modification that’s necessary to coerce software into running on different handsets and across different networks.

At its core, the mobile ecosystem is vastly different to the relatively standardised desktop internet experience that Google is familiar with.  Not only will different carriers have different systems to manage their networks, there are a broad range of cellphones each with different screen sizes, graphics abilities, OS and of course operator-enforced limitations:

“We have to deal with a lot of idiosyncrasies and challenges that carriers place on us.  For instance, some carriers cripple certain functionality on their phones. So we have to re-engineer some parts of the software to accommodate that” Mauro Lollo, CEO, Movidity

Nonetheless, while wary there’s still a glimmer of enthusiasm for Android’s future.  Central to it is not so much the capacity of the platform - which won’t be fully understood until the SDK has been released - but Google’s ability to drive an alternative economic model through its expertise in advertising.  Developers recognise both that the prospect of a lower-cost smartphone would encourage growth and competition, driving down prices and boosting user takeup, and that once that happens the playing field will be levelled out somewhat, more similar in fact to Google’s traditional environment. 

“I think for the Google platform to really be a game-changer it’s going to have to offer more than just an open-source operating system for a mobile phone. It will have to create mobile Internet devices that happen to make phone calls” Kay Johansson, CTO, MobiTV