With the advent of Java on mobile phones many years ago, third party companies for the first time had the possibility to write software that runs on mobile phones. Many other programing environments have followed over the year and the most popular ones are currently the native programming environment for the iPhone, for Android and for Symbian. While it's incredible what can be done with them the quite deliberately set one limitation: All 3rd party programs are shielded from the operating systems. The can use the API offered to them but they are restricted from directly accessing any hardware or to interact directly with other parts of the operating system. With Android, things have become quite different though.
As Android does not only publish an API for programs running in the Dalvik virtual machine but the complete source code of the operating system, companies interested in offering functionality that requires interaction with the hardware or directly extend OS functionality can do so relatively easily. I have two interesting examples:
- GAN for Android: Orange UK and T-Mobile US are now shipping Android based phones with Kineto's GAN stack that tunnel GSM voice calls over Wi-Fi (see here and here). Developed many years ago, GAN depended on Nokia, Samsung and others to integrate the GAN stack into mobile phones as the programing environments of their phones did not allow 3rd parties to dwell deep enough in the OS. With Android however, external companies can do it themselves.
- NFC functionality: NXP and G&D have worked on integrating NFC and SIM Secure Element functionality into the Android OS (see here). Again, something that would have been only possible for device manufactures can now be done by 3rd parties to enable their services.
But there is one catch: Anything running outside Dalvik virtual machine can't be installed from the outside by a third party on non-rooted devices. In other words, such solutions have to be delivered as part of the firmware image. Which brings in Google and handset manufacturers again. 3rd parties can develop the code but it has to be integrated by the manufacturers. Still, a significant advantage over closed source operating systems, where such functionality can only be implemented by the OS owner.
Many other programing environments have followed over the year and the most popular ones are currently the native programming environment for the iPhone, for Android and for Symbian. While it’s incredible what can be done with them the quite deliberately set one limitation: All 3rd party programs are shielded from the operating systems. The can use the API offered to them but they are restricted from directly accessing any hardware or to interact directly with other parts of the operating system. With Android, things have become quite different though.