Google Android platform far from finished

Much is still up in the air, just a few months before the first phones are expected to arrive. Google has yet to make crucial decisions about the code base that will accompany Android; such as, which applications are required to make it an Android phone? How will that base be maintained into the future? And how much freedom will Android developers and partners really have to tweak the software?

Google is aiming high with Android. "Android has two goals: First, to be an excellent mobile platform on its merits, and second, to be open and open source," wrote Dan Morill, a Google engineer, on the Android Internals discussion board last week. But in this new world of advanced mobile computing, those goals can conflict.

The details of how Google chooses to release Android will make a huge impact on how it is received by the world. And Rich Miner knows it. Miner is in charge of Google's wireless business and along with Andy Rubin co-founded the original Android. He is presiding over a huge development project within Google, as the company works to develop a brand-new mobile operating system using the Linux kernel, code contributed by OHA members and internally developed code.