Android is “the open source revolution” applied to cellular telephony. At least, part of it. There are many other attempts to provide open source cell phones, ranging from the mostly-defunct Openmoko Freerunner through QT Embedded, Moblin, LiMo, Debian Mobile, Maemo to the recently-open-sourced Symbian OS. Not to mention the estab-lished non-open-source stalwarts: Blackberry OS, Apple’s iPhone, and Microsoft Windows Mobile (these have developer toolkits, but their OS is not available as open source). MU, FS, HF

“Nobody’s armchair is a good predictor of the future”, though, as Mike O’Dell once
said. Does Android have a place in the sun alongside these other players? We think it
does. This book is here to help the Android developer community share the knowledge
that will make it happen. Those who contribute knowledge here are helping make
Android development easier for those who come after.