Android Mobile Platform: first peek

Previous post about the Open Handset Alliance

The Android SDK was released less than 24 hours ago

The emulator is not rendering Telugu font (or any other Indic fonts for that matter) :(

click for larger image

More to come on this topic....

Open Handset Alliance and Telugu Unicode

With the launch of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) and Android platform today by a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies, including Google, we can expect their Linux-based phones to roll sometime next year. Penetrating a market dominated by Symbian will not be easy, but it is certainly not impossible for an initiative backed by the Mountain View technology giant.

A less observed tangential news from Ascender Corporation, which is also part of the OHA, is seen here: Ascender Corp. Provides Fonts to Open Handset Alliance

"Ascender is developing a collection of fonts that will be delivered as part of the Android platform. The fonts will be used as part of the User Interface and will provide support for multiple languages."

Yes, Ascender's list of fonts includes Telugu too

Does this mean all (or some) future Linux phones based on the Android platform will be loaded with Ascender's fonts by default? If so, will that include South Asian languages (like Telugu) also? If not, will it still be easier to put in multilingual fonts and get Telugu unicode rendered perfectly on mobile browsers installed on the Android OS?

Discussions related to viewing Telugu on Mobile Browsers in Telugublog group

Unicode on Mobile Browser
విండోస్ మోబైల్ 6 లో తెలుగు చూడ్డం

Will the Open Handset Alliance solve the problem of viewing Indic unicode on mobile browsers?
Only time will tell...

To start with..let's wait for their SDK which is releasing on November 12th, and see the features it contains.