First Sight of Google Android

CorinneI writes "At the Mobile World Congress show, four mobile processor vendors demoed pre-production devices running versions of Google's Android OS — a Linux-based, open operating system for mobile phones that will sport Google applications. The biggest surprise of the demos was how well Android runs on slow devices. 'TI showed Android on a Motorola Q-like QWERTY handheld with its 200 Mhz OMAP 850 platform, where the user interface felt smooth and fast, even with little Apple-like animated transitions between screens.' HTC, Motorola, LG, and Samsung all belong to Google's Open Handset Alliance"

Not surprising

[erick99 (743982)]

"The biggest surprise of the demos was how well Android runs on slow devices. TI showed Android on a Motorola Q-like QWERTY handheld with their 200 Mhz OMAP 850 platform, where the user interface felt smooth and fast, even with little Apple-like animated transitions between screens."

I don't know why that would be so surprising. Google has quite a bevy of talented people at all levels. All products that come out of Google seem to have something to do with advertising and Android will be just such a vehicle for them. It's how most everything in cyberspace gets funded. You get something for free (a video, a song, a game) and an advertiser pays.

Re:Not surprising

[dotancohen (1015143)]

Also, 200 mhz really isn't that slow for an embedded device. My Mio 339 had a 233 mhz processor running Windows Mobile 2002. It flew, I really loved it. I replaced it with a Dell Axim x50v Windows Mobile 2003SE. The Dell has a 624 mhz processor and I'm always waiting for it. I believe that speed is 10% hardware, 90% software.

I won't even talk about the performance of Compiz-Fusion on my Inspiron, as compared to Vista on the same hardware that an associate has.

Re:

[Brian Gordon (987471)]

I don't know why that's slow for any device? Why on earth do you need fancy graphics for a telephone anyway? Linux runs on much slower hardware.

Re:Not surprising

[by Anonymous Coward]

I'm guessing the ascii version of google earth wouldn't wow people much.

You are here ---> .

Your destination is here ---> .

Re:Not surprising

[AKAImBatman (238306)]

Rendering web pages takes a decent amount of CPU to do quickly, for one.

Not really. Web-page rendering is memory intensive and I/O bound. The amount of device memory available combined with the speed of your connection and phone bus will have a much greater impact on the performance of page rendering than the CPU.

In fact, there are few common tasks which are CPU-bound these days. Video encoding/decoding come to mind. (Thus the low resolution of the Android player.) This can easily be mitigated in a multimedia device by including hardware decoder chips. Gaming is another area where CPU can have an impact, but I imagine these phones aren't being presented as portable game machines. If someone wanted to make the next Android NGage, they'd probably look to NVidia for an embedded 3D chip to offload much of the work from the CPU.

The iPhone's success wasn't because it had a fast enough CPU to render web pages. Quite the contrary. The success was that its memory, storage capacity, and touch screen allowed the iPhone developers to provide an easy-to-use interface to the browser. Safari itself isn't necessarily "better" than Opera Mini, but it is wrapped in a superior user-interface.

Re:

[Gilmoure (18428)]

My Newton 2100 runs on a 162 Mhz processor. Is still plenty fast.

Martha will never know what hit her!

Re:Not surprising

[AKAImBatman (238306)]

The OMAP 850 is a multimedia-focused chip with graphics acceleration built in. The only surprise is that the reviewer called it "slow" based on the mere fact that it's a 200MHz chip.

Re:Not surprising

[Sparr0 (451780)]

If the 300HP car weighed 6x as much as the 60HP one? I'd call the 60HP one "faster".

Re:Not surprising

[olip (203119)]

If the 300HP car weighed 6x as much as the 60HP one? I'd call the 60HP one "faster".

I'd call it slower.
Both will have the same acceleration until air drag is involved.
Supposing they have the same shape (formally : equal CdA [wikipedia.org]), the top speed of the 300HP car is approximately sqrt(6)=2,45 times the top speed of the 60HP one, which I would then call slower.
Weight has no direct impact on top speed.

not only that

[nguy (1207026)]

Not only are the developers good, they have implemented exactly this system before and run it on low-end processors: they developed Danger's Hiptop (a company built from the ground up on Java, strangely enough recently purchased by Microsoft).

Re:Not surprising

[dlim (928138)]

I can't say I'm surprised either. If you look at their design philosophy [google.com], the first subheading is "Fast". Coming from a web/desktop development background, I was surprised at first to see the constant focus on efficiency. But apparently, it's paying off.

I ran Wincows CE and Androiid side by side

[EmbeddedJanitor (597831)]

... both on ARM simulators (ie a reasonable comparisons). Android is about 5-10 times as fast as WinCE for equivalent tasks.

As others have posted, 200MHz is nothing to sniff at (unless you're throwing it away with bloatware). If Windows 3.11 could run snappily on a 50MHz 486 then there is no good reason for slow software on a 200MHz ARM.

One of the interesting outcomes of the speed difference is that this means Android based devices should have far better power figures than equivalent Windows CE devices.

Efficiency is something you have to design in early. The idea that you caan make a bloaty architecture efficient is broken. You don't get a gazzelle by shaving an elephant's legs.

Sadly, Android and OpenMoko...

[theGreater (596196)]

...seem destined not to converge in any significant way, in spite of some pretty awesome hacks:

http://benno.id.au/blog/2007/11/21/android-neo1973 [benno.id.au]

-theGreater.

Re:supposedly open source

[nguy (1207026)]

Just use Google!

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=android%20open%20source [google.com]

Then you find:

http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/android_overview.html [openhandsetalliance.com]

"Android will be open source; it can be liberally extended to incorporate new cutting edge technologies as they emerge. The platform will continue to evolve as the developer community works together to build innovative mobile applications."

The unfortunate thing about this Android is

[fohat (168135)]

it's got a pain in all the diodes down it's left side. (and it's very depressed)

200MHz is slow?

[bigdanmoody (599431)]

Since when was 200MHz slow? My old Visor Edge has a 16MHz processor and it feels quite peppy. It does everything I would expect a smartphone to do (other than the fact that it can't make phone calls), and it's easy to use. Have we gotten so used to bloat and poorly optimized code that a 200MHz processor in a phone seems slow? It's a *phone* for Pete's sake.

Too long to wait

[rossz (67331)]

I'm looking for a new smartphone right now. The Android based phones will fit the bill, but I doubt any products will be available until near the end of the year - perhaps just in time for the Christmas rush.

What I want:

1. QWERTY keyboard, the LG Voyager has the nicest keyboard I've tried. To bad the Voyager is locked down in BREW hell.
2. Internet connectivity.
3. Supports IMAP email to any server (I run my own).
4. I don't have to pay a damn fee to enable for every little feature that it already comes with.
5. I can install new applications without using some paid for server, e.g. there's a Symbian OS version of Putty. An ssh client would be awesome.
6. Unlimited data plan available with provider - and reasonably priced.

Would be nice, but not required:

1. Linux based (not much out there, probably have to settle for a Symbian based phone).
2. GPS module.
3. Wifi support.
4. If the phone has music playing capability, support for OGG (I'm not holding my breath).
5. Camera, not really a big deal to me. I can live without one.

Deal breakers:

1. Locked down. It's my damn phone, you won't be telling me how I can use it!
2. Windows Mobile. I'm a Linux system administrator, running a windows based phone would be so wrong.
3. BREW/GIN or anything similar.

So far, the Nokia E90 is the closest to match what I want. The Road's HandyPC S101 surpasses it, but isn't available in the US (afaik).

Q9 P.O.S with WM6, also no push e-mail?

[marcushnk (90744)]

I can testify that the Q9 is a piece of crap with Windows Mobile 6. very sluggish and clumsy feeling after coming from the slick responsive world of a Blackberry 8800.

Also I notice there isn't any "e-mail" icon on any of the screenshots...
Does this mean it's going to be another iPhone (can only get push mail from Yahoo) type device..

that would really suck if true. I _really_ hope that they're thinking of the enterprise with these things.. having to accept either RIM or MS devices only sucks balls when I know that Linux based OS's would be so much better.

Smooth and Fast

[wiredlogic (135348)]

The UI was smooth and fast on my 486/33 running Windows 3.11. It's still quite capable running a no-frills X window manager and Pentium Overdrive. The Apple ][GS was reasonably snappy when it didn't have to access a drive. The only reason why a multi-hundred MHz device could be slow is programmer laziness.

Android Source code

[realdodgeman (1113225)]

Google does have a GIT repo for all the open source components of Android. The kernel is here: http://git.android.com/ [android.com]

You can also read (here [google.com]) that

Over time, more of the code that makes up Android will be released, but at this point, we have been concentrating on shipping an SDK that helps application developers get started. In short: Stay tuned.

Re:People Excited After The iPhone Marketplace Dud

[BobMcD (601576)]

you probably live in a cabin in the Ozarks

Hey! I in fact AM from the Ozarks, you insensitive clod!

I'm also stoked that I FINALLY got to use one of those phrases!

Re:People Excited After The iPhone Marketplace Dud

[MidnightBrewer (97195)]

That's the disadvantage for the iPhone in Japan: fantastic phones already being present. Even though the interface doesn't compare with the iPhone, Japanese cell phones have long since been about style, and even on a bad day, they make "fantastic" American phones look pretty sad indeed.

Re:People Excited After The iPhone Marketplace Dud

[Takichi (1053302)]

Are you trying to say the iPhone won't do well because it isn't stylish enough? I don't see the Japanese phones being more stylish than an expensive, globally buzzworthy product that has a sleek physical design and ubercool user interface. If anything the iPhone will do well because of its association with style and the status that comes with it. I think Apple products in general have an extra sense of style because of their computer designs and the success of the iPod. I can't tell you how many Japanese people look at my powerbook and go, "Makku? Coooru."

Re:

[Lonedar (897073)]

Having talked to some people around here (UK) it seems to me that Apple would sell many more Iphones by ditching the carrier lock-in it is plagued with currently. Seriously. I can get any phone on the market without having to sign any contracts - except for the Iphone.

Now, O2 is not a particularly bad carrier, but I travel a lot and I would really like to be able to use my phone abroad without paying the quite extortionate roaming fees.

Also, no 3G (yet).

Re:People Excited After The iPhone Marketplace Dud

[meringuoid (568297)]

We might think that browsing Facebook on your phone is cool, but that's obviously not the case for most consumers.

I often browse Facebook on my phone. It's a Sony Ericsson K800i - high end 18 months ago, nowadays it's getting to be the standard issue free-with-cheap-contract phone that everyone in the world seems to have. Certainly it doesn't compete with the iPhone as a web browser, but it's capable enough, and Facebook has a perfectly good mobile-optimised site. And you can always install Opera Mini.