Google Android on other Devices Soon … I’m sure
One of the smartest things Apple has done with the iPhone platform is release a non-iPhone device that has the same OS/capabilities—the iPod touch. If you’re not interested in buying an iPhone, in switching to Cingular, in all of that, you can still build and thoroughly test iPhone web apps and native apps by purchasing a cheap iPod touch.
This is not the case with Google’s Android platform. Currently, the only way to play with an Android device is to buy a T-Mobile G1, and sign up for a T-Mobile account. There’s no way for a non-T-Mobile user to buy a cheaper device or an unlocked G1 to build applications, test web apps, etc. This is a huge mistake on Google’s part, and one which I hope they rectify.
Android’s code is open source and available so you can put it on whatever device you want. People have loaded onto several Sharp devices and the Nokia 810. Pretty much any device with an ARMv5TE processor can run it, and this probably was not the version available to handset makers. I’m sure others have/will compile/d Android to run on other processor architectures soon. Not to mention the fact that you could download the SDK and run the simulator for months.
