Google Android Delayed and Impaired

When I first wrote about mobile platforms that I was evaluating for business purposes, I concluded that Android might be a suitable first choice even though there are no phones at present and the platform's present incompleteness. I am less certain now.

Delays are to be expected, so even early 2009 for the first real phone is not a deal killer, and remains a target I can live with. Of greater concern is the lack of enthusiasm in the wider developer universe and gaps in the SDK and emulator. Enthusiasm is hard to measure, so let me put that and focus on the platform itself.

The SDK and IDE seem to work fine for me, at least in the very limited use I've made of them. The documentation and teaching material is rudimentary, occasionally incorrect, though generally servicable. There are however two big gaps for my particular purposes:

• Telephony package is incomplete: You can trap key telephony events but you cannot retrieve important data associated with incoming calls, and especially not calling number. The digging I've done indicates that it is coming, sometime, in a future release, though I have no way to know if or when.
• Simulation of calls: Seems to be a challenge to inject calls into the emulator to test telephony applications. I have no idea if this will ever appear in the SDK, or perhaps I must wait for the first phone and (locally) supporting network. This isn't good.

I read elsewhere that a Google marketing manager (Chu) described the Android OS as 80% complete. I hope he didn't mean this in the sense of the software 80/20 rule: that it takes 20% of the effort to complete the first 80%, and 80% of the effort to complete the remaining 20%! Considering the size of the project I am doubting they are serious about launching the first phone by year end.

I get the impression Google is primarily interested in enabling stand-alone apps (those not integrated with telephony) to compete with Apple, RIM and Microsoft, especially to increase distribution of their own apps. Even to accomplish that they have some way to go. I still hope they do succeed since I like the openness of the platform and their comparatively uninhibited approach to outside developers.

Update: From Venture Beat, in all its tedious detail. More waiting for the latest SDK.