Google and 33 other companies have announced an ambitious industry alliance that will maintain a completely open source mobile phone stack. The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) says phones based on its Linux-based “Android” stack will reach market in as soon as eight months.
The Android stack is based on “open Linux kernel,” the group says. It also includes a full set of mobile phone application software, in order to “significantly lower the cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services,” OHA said.
The stack appears to have been created by Android, a mobile phone software house that Google acquired just over two years ago. The Android stack’s name is apparently a reflection of co-founder Andy Rubin’s fondness for robots. Rubin previously co-founded Danger, a software house that continues to provide software for the Sidekick “hiptop” marketed by T-Mobile.