How Android should learn from the iPhone’s mistakes

Last week, the Android SDK package gained the ability to support layout animations, geocoding, and media player codecs for several different formats. But it isn’t the sheer number of technical feats that Android can perform that will propel it to the front of the smartphone market, it’s Google’s whole mindset surrounding the device. While iPhone enthusiasts struggle to work around the iPhone’s third-party software limitations, Google has introduced a ten million dollar prize for the best third-party Android application. Next, the fact that Android is by nature an open-source operating system makes it bound to be far less restrictive than the iPhone SDK (if it ever arrives). It is impossible to determine just how restrictive the iPhone’s SDK will be, but you can bet it won’t be nearly as open as the Android operating system. By creating a developer-friendly device back by a company who openly encourages modifying the phone’s operating system, Google will experience far more success with Android than Apple did with the restrictive, closed system of the iPhone.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a video showcasing Android’s key surface features.
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