Forming of the Open Handset Alliance

Forming of the Open Handset Alliance

With its user-centric, democratic design philosophies, Google has led a movement to

turn the existing closely guarded wireless market into one where phone users can move

between carriers easily and have unfettered access to applications and services.With its

vast resources, Google has taken a broad approach, examining the wireless infrastructure

from the FCC wireless spectrum policies to the handset manufacturers’ requirements,

application developer needs, and mobile operator desires.

Next, Google joined with other like-minded members in the wireless community

and posed the following question:What would it take to build a better mobile phone? 

The Open Handset Alliance (OHA)  was formed in November 2007 to

answer that very question.The OHA is a business alliance comprised of many of the

largest and most successful mobile companies on the planet. Its members include chip

makers, handset manufacturers, software developers, and service providers.The entire

mobile supply chain is well represented.

Working together, OHA members began developing a nonproprietary open standard

platform that would aim to alleviate the aforementioned problems hindering the mobile

community.They called it the Android project.

Google’s involvement in the Android project has been extensive.The company hosts

the open source project and provides online documentation, tools, forums, and theSoftware Development Kit (SDK). Google has also hosted a number of events at confer-

ences and the Android Developer Challenge, a contest to encourage developers to write

killer Android applications—for $10 million dollars in prizes.