Android = Linux + PhoneME

I have read quite a sizeable amount of news on Google’s move into the mobile arena and it’s announcement about their complete mobile phone stack called Android. What is the composition of Android? Besides using Linux as the operating system, what other software did Google use in creating the complete open mobile platform?

Google has been known to use Java on their applications. Gmail for mobile phones uses Java. So does the Google Web Toolkit — an open source web application development framework.

Has Google developed their own mobile phone stack using Java? Or did they use the existing efforts of the PhoneME java.net project to complete the open mobile platform?

The PhoneME platform members have worked hard to create implementations of the different JSR’s under Java Mobile. PhoneME’s implementation includes bluetooth, wireless messaging, personal information and file management, SIP API, Web services support and even the Payment API. All of these in a full multitasking stack with skinnable UI widgets.

It seems to be the closest possible open-source Java Mobile stack usable on a mobile phone. Rather that create everything from scratch, there’s a big chance that Google may build upon the effort started by the PhoneME project and use it as part of the Android open mobile platform.

Hmmmm. It really makes me wonder, so does Android = Linux + PhoneME? I eagerly await for the November 12 date when Google releases the Android SDK.