Android Finds Appiness

Goodness gracious, you’d think someone thought up something completely revolutionary in the idea of opening up a platform for third-party developers to write to.

Talkin’ ’bout the buzz around Google Inc.’s announcement of plans for the Android applications store — er, actually, lest they come and hunt me down like the dog I am, it’s an “open content distribution system.” Any developer can gain access to the SDK for Google’s Android mobile OS and device stack, write any sort of application or widget he or she likes, then upload it to the applica ... I mean, open content distribution system site for download and installation on Android devices.

This open development idea isn’t new (look at what Facebook has done), but it is indeed new for the mobile world — that’s the lead. And it could unleash a lot of creativity.

And let’s call it the OCDS. Yes, folks, we at least need an acronym here, though it sounds a lot like “OCD.” But come to think of it, OCD is what Google hopes a lot of people will become over the launch.

No matter what the Googster would like to call it, it’s drawing comparisons to the Apple Inc. App Store, naturally. But there are differences. For one, Apple vets all of its applications to test for compatibility, security concerns and presumably lack of porn-related content. Android’s OCDS, we’re told, will be a free-for-all, Wild West kind of place where it’s open (putting the “O” in OCDS) to anything a developer can dream up. It’s putting money behind all of Google’s open-access talk, but some worry the place will become a kind of telecom bath house, kind of like Kazaa in the heady file-sharing days. You never knew if you were going to catch something.

Aside from that, I think this will really test the waters for tolerance to open access. T-Mobile USA is debuting the first Android device this month; it will be interesting to see how well the revenue model for Android does vis a vis T-Mobile’s more traditional walled garden-based phones. Especially with no 3G to supercharge the apps.

And what will that revenue model be, anyway? Details are precious few. Free apps, paid content, “premium” options, advertising? Hmm?

Any tips, e-mail me.

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