Google gave a demo of Android ... looks sweet. Can't tell if the device in question will have a side-slide QWERTY or not. If it does, it would pretty much replace my desire for a Nokia E71... and maybe my desire for a next gen NIT (since it would have linux already, and hopefully there would be add-ons for ssh, vnc, and an rss reader).

Google Demos the HTC Dream at IO Conference/

The Dream, manufactured by HTC and with its' gutsy Qualcomm MSM7201A processor good for 528MHz, 128MB of RAM, 256MB of ROM, a capacitive touchscreen all in a delicious 3x5 inch QWERTY toting package. Oh, an an Android to boot. Oh n900, please be on the way, and soon, or someone will have eaten your lunch.

Android is hardly a competitor to the tablet anymore than Goodyear tires are a competitor to Ford.

The hardware questions are all speculation at this point, Dream hardware info is all leaks and questionable, the n900 is pure unadulterated speculation. The question is ....is Android a competitor to Maemo?

I saw the Android demo just a few minutes ago and was highly impressed. They're definitely taking a lot of Apple's UI ideas from the iPhone. (And rightly so, since they're good ones.) But unfortunately I don't think an Android-based device is going to replace my N800 anytime in the near future. I chose the N800 over the iPhone (or iPod touch, anyway) for two big reasons:

1) The hardware is vastly superior (bluetooth, memory cards, speakers!) yet less expensive.

2) The iPhone OS, middleware, and applications are entirely proprietary. The NIT software, on the other hand, is almost entirely open source and I like supporting open source companies as much as having devices which run open source software.

When I went to download the Android SDK from the official website to tinker around with it, I found that it has a very restrictive, proprietary license. A bit of quick searching confirmed that while they're offering repository access to the open source bits that they use, Android as a whole is completely locked up just as tightly as the iPhone is.

I'm rather anxious to see what the OpenMoko folks will come up with (if they ever ship a product) but for now, the NIT seems to be the most open-source-friendly device on the market.

IIRC, Google plans to release all of Android as open source under the Apache license once the first Android based phones start shipping. After that I don't see any insurmountable technical reasons why someone couldn't hack up an Android runtime that could work to some extent on the tablets along with Maemo. There would be technical issues to overcome of course, but the N8x0 definitely has the CPU power for it and if the demand and source code is there I think someone will step forward.

-John

Android has already been run on the N8X0

Check out instructions and such here, if you want to be a hero: http://elinux.org/Android_on_OMAP#No...nd_Android_SDK

It's been done: http://www.talkandroid.com/65-google...id-nokia-n810/ But nothing laid out for ease. You're pretty damned good at making complicated tasks easy, John. (Love the debian beta3, using it.) Maybe show android some love?

This new one shows quite a bit more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arXolJrLVEg

OMG. Android looks sweet - makes OS2008 look like Windows 3.1 on my N800. If and when it comes for the ITs, Nokia can just ditch Maemo.

Form factor on the NITs is still a concern for me, personally. I'm using my N800 less and less since my iPhone is ALWAYS with me and the browsing experience is very good.

Nokia needs to step up their game.

AFAIK most GUI applications will have to be written from the ground up to work on Android, as there is no X server. There is also no choice of language, you have to use java.

I think it will be much cooler if and when android runs alongside maemo rather than instead of maemo.