I am a sometimes Eclipse app hacker and all time Eclipse app user. Please God of Google don't do this.

Eclipse apps like to run in 1GB of RAM or better

Eclipse apps like to run in 2GHz CPU's or better

Phones have a critical problem with battery size

The fastest phone applicable processor out there today runs in the 625Mhz range. The biggest phone RAM pad out there today is 256MB with a mSD interface to another 20GB of slow SD addressable indirectly through a file system. The CPU winner is the HTC X7500 and it weighs in at 12.6oz. The RAM winner is the Seamless SXGEN (which clocks in at over 400grams total weight).

If Google is seriously talking about Eclipse apps then they're not really talking about phones, they're talking about palmtop computers, and such that already surpass the specs of all phones out there today.

Luckily, some of us value functionality much more highly than looks when it comes to gadgets. Not to say the iPhone isn't functional, but how it looks could honestly not be less important to me.

I always thought we had locked-down cellphones because that is what the cellphone carriers demanded. I'd love to know how Google plans to get the carriers to support an "open" phone architecture.

I see Eclipse as just an IDE. From what I've seen (and it isn't much) the Android package is just a layer on top of Java that has the API for the platform. It doesn't necessarily require a huge storage or RAM footprint, something a "regular" Eclipse app would require. I'm sure people might want to debate whether Java is the right platform, but a combination of Java and XML is a pretty agnostic choice. As a Java developer myself (who doesn't use Eclipse), I'm pretty stoked on it.

"By then Google will have dished out millions to programmers to come up with something fantastic for the system. By then it may have created a killer phone."

And by then the iPhone will have been updated twice, to accomodate everthing Android is supposed to "fix" about mobile phones.

What about Canada? The iPhone is still not out up here, and there's no release date in sight. Oh, and it'll probably cost literally hundreds of dollars a month for a data plan.

I'm still optimistic Google will pre-empt Apple in Canada and bring some competition to this wretched market. Am I whistling Dixie?

This statement is patently incorrect:

"Unlike most phones today, devices running Android will be able to run applications created by third-party developers."

This is only true for the iPhone. Microsoft has a Windows Mobile development kit for Visual Studio complete with phone emulators. I've had almost a dozen 3rd party apps on my phone for a year now. Most applications for Java-based phones are third-party (mlb live game audio, Sprint Family Locator service - made by someone else). For the Java-based phones, distribution of 3rd party software is not as simple as for Windows-Mobile-based devices so distribution is generally, but not always, through the carriers. Also, don't forget the 3rd party applications for Palm products. Last I checked there were a lot of Treos and Blackberries out there.

Check out http://www.pocketgear.com for examples of 3rd party apps.