Android SDK — keepin’ it on the down low
There is a bit of a stink in the Android developer community lately about the lack of a recent release of the SDK. Google has reportedly given a new version of the SDK to the 50 Android Developer Challenge contest winners, but not to the general developer community. There’s been quite a bit of speculation as to why Google has not made a widespread SDK release. Some think it is a reward to the contest winners. Some think there is pressure from members of the Open Handset Alliance. Others think with all the iPhone 2.0 news, the timing is bad for Android news. Many more guesses, and I’m not trying to list them all here.
But here’s another theory to throw on the heap.
I think Google has some surprises up their sleeve. The whole point of not releasing the SDK to everyone is they want to keep these surprises a secret as long as possible. As close to the release of an Android phone as possible. There are screenshots of the new SDK, and they look noticeably different than the current SDK release. Check it out:
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| Android SDK screenshot | Limited Release Android SDK photo |
An opportunity presented itself earlier today. Robert Scoble tweeted that he was hanging out with the Google PR team, and did anyone have any questions. I tweeted him back to have him ask Google PR about the Android SDK, and when will the general developer community see a new release?. Now I don’t know and have never met Robert Scoble, so my chances are slim that I would get any response. Time will tell. Looking through the other questions people submitted, not a lot were asked about the Android SDK. There is a nice discussion going on over on FriendFeed about Scoble asking Google PR questions. When Robert Scoble posts about the questions he asked, it will be in the FriendFeed comments or on his website at http://scobleizer.com/
Will Google release a new version of the Android SDK soon? I doubt it. At this point, they are focused on working with their top developers, and with handset makers to get a device out the door by the end of the year. Releasing a more current SDK will just slow them down. My prediction is Google will not release a new SDK until after an Android device ships. I hope I’m wrong.
UPDATE 1: Join in a discussion on FriendFeed.
UPDATE 2: Google to release new SDK on August 5th according to the Android Google Group. I’ll write a new post when the new SDK is released.
Why Did Google Remove XMPP Support from Android?
The talk this week in Google Android news is the removal of XMPP support from the OS. XMPP is the “extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, an open, XML-inspired protocol for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging (IM) and presence information (a.k.a. buddy lists).” (source: Wikipedia)
Why is this important? Having a service like XMPP available in the OS means that developers wanting to use this in their applications have to implement it on their own, or include someone else’s install in addition to their application. One of the hottest areas of application development are in instant messaging and location-based services, such as Twitter, BrightKite, Loopt, Jabber, etc. Since this is an extendable protocol, additional abilities like VoIP can be defined and added. If you want more background information, you can read about it on TechCrunchIT here and on Google here.
OK, that’s the background of the issue. Here is the political reality. Yes, political.
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