Over the past two weeks, I've been getting deep into Google Android development and I'm pretty excited about it. It'll be amazing to see a fully open source platform for mobile phones and it looks like it'll be adopted by all the major carriers (except ATT, for obvious reasons). I'm also glad to hear a lot of talk from the industry about how this could change everything from the standpoint of smart phones, a traditionally locked-down and stagnant area of technology that's always had a lot of potential.

The application APIs are also quite amazing. They allow things like multi-threading, so an application can run in the background while other apps are running, the ability to install by download, so vendors can't lock down what apps you can run, and the handling of events, so if I don't like the default SMS app, I can write my own or install a better one that I like better. Carriers will have to play along to keep everything open and playing friendly, but T-Mobile has already said that they will, so any other carrier will have a hard time selling a locked down version at this point.

With the release of the first Android based phone, the not-so-hot IMO G1, we're seeing these phones coming to market. Here's what I'm hoping happens:

1. The T-Mobile G1 gets released on Oct. 22nd as the first Android powered phone. It'll only be the first phone for the platform, so it's by no means the end-all-be-all. It'll also be SIM-locked to T-Mobile.
2. I'm hoping that it'll only be a few weeks after that when Google open sources the entire Android codebase. We already know that they will and I'm hoping it's sooner rather than later.
3. Once Android is open sourced, it'll start getting ported to other phones, either via the manufacturers of those phones or by open source developers. I'm really hoping it gets to the Nokia phones and other HTC phones sooner rather than later.
4. Once that happens, you'll be free to use whatever phone you want with whatever carrier you want and still get all the great features of Android; the OS itself, the one API needed for all Android phones and all the apps to be written, and already written, for the platform.

If those things do happen like I hope they will, I think we'll really start to see the power of an open platform for mobile. If it was just going to be the G1 and that was it, it really wouldn't be all that exciting, but I think everything is set up to have this take off if it ends up being as open as Google seems to be leading on about.