Will Android flourish on netbook PCs?
Google has always maintained that Android was designed to run on a broad range of devices beyond mobile phones. Now that developers have hacked an EeePC netbook to run Android, the question remains whether it will be a success on the big screen.
Two developers have hacked an Asus EeePC 1000H to run the Android operating system. Currently the only devices on the market running Android are mobile phones.
Netbooks surged in popularity in 2008 as a smaller and more mobile form factor than a laptop. In fact, last year was the first time that mobile PCs such as laptops and netbooks surpassed the sales of desktop computers.
Since Android was built on top of Linux’s kernel, the core part of the operating system, it’s possible for developers to run Android on any device capable of running Linux. Many manufacturers offer both Windows and Linux variants of their netbooks, making it possible to run Android on a number of them.
Android would likely be considered a competitor to Linux on netbooks than of Windows. Linux has quite a head start on Android as an operating system and many more applications are designed for Linux.
This handicap isn’t likely to erode very soon either. Porting applications to run on Android isn’t nearly as trivial as installing the platform.
Android does have one advantage over its venerable cousin. Google designed Android for touch screen devices, which netbooks are starting to include in new devices. In fact, EeePC is expected to ship a touch screen netbook in the first quarter.
Even so, Android will need to prove its worth for basic tasks such as an office suite, fully-featured enterprise email and a more robust browser. Google’s versions of these essential tools pale in terms of the capability of both Windows and Linux versions.
Nevertheless, I’m sure that some Google die-hards are eager to give the Android netbook experience a go. It will be quite telling to see how Android stands up to full PC usage.
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January 2nd, 2009
Seems like a reinvent the wheel exercise. Why?
January 2nd, 2009
Any move away from Microsoft is progress. Its still early in the game…so we’ll see how this all pans out.