Following last week's announcement of the Open Handset Alliance, today we're happy to offer an early look at the Android SDK. We're eager to get feedback from lots of developers in our discussion group. We're also providing developer documentation and this blog to help you get up and going.
You're probably wondering about what's available today. This preview of the SDK will allow you to develop Android applications that you can run, test, profile, and debug using the emulator and the other included tools. Note that the look and feel of the user interface in the emulator is a placeholder for a final version that is under development.
One of our goals in releasing the Android SDK is to unleash the creativity of application developers on the platform. We'd also like to get feedback early enough that we can make changes before the first Android-powered devices are available to the public. We plan to release updates to the SDK regularly which means that there will be additions and changes to the APIs and user experience — subscribe to this blog to stay up to date.
We're really looking forward to seeing all the amazing applications that developers will create on an open mobile phone platform. In fact, you may even want to enter your application into the Android Developer Challenge — a USD$10 million challenge sponsored by Google to support and recognize developers who build great applications for the Android platform.
