Google finally got around to releasing the Android SDK today and having watched the videos (but not yet looked at the SDK itself) I was pleasantly surprised.  What struck me most was that the low end prototype seemed capable of doing everything an iPhone can do right now. 

As one might expect a few people in the blogosphere are taking that comparison too far though and comparing a platform on a prototype to an actual phone such as the iPhone.  This, to my eye, is pretty foolish.    The bottom line is that Google is demonstrating a platform for developers AND phone manufacturers to build on.  There’s nothing that says the UI, form factor, price or anything else will be the same on an actual phone.   So if the low end version sells for $99 and does everything that the iPhone does won’t that change things significantly?  Or what if HTC creates a phone which has a really refined interface, won’t that also change things significantly?     

THAT is the point.  This is a platform, not a phone.  This is meant for developers, not consumers. 

That said what I’m not so sure about is the fact that Google is offering various cash prizes to encourage developers ($10 million in all with prizes from $25,000 up).  Cash prizes are great but I can’t help but think they’re better suited for when there’s at least one phone to develop for.  At this point no one’s even announced a phone much less a carrier deal (though HTC announced support so I’d assume they’ll have one eventually).  With all the target platforms (Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm and coming soon the iPhone) why would any serious developer put a lot of effort into writing an app for a platform with no support?   

I don’t know…I’ve learned never to underestimate the hobbyist and there will certainly be a lot of hobbyists’ after the cash prize so who knows.  Clearly this is a stunt by Google to make the platform more attractive to phone developers and carriers but I’m not sure its going to yield any ground breaking applications.