Today, Google announced the next major release of Android OS, codenamed "Eclair". The new release packs many useful features for both developer and end-users. Verizon is expected to officially announce the first DROID phone tomorrow that dons the new OS.

Here are some of the key highlights:
  • Exchange Support
  • Support for multiple accounts synchronization
  • Quick Contact for Android allows users to quickly initiate various contact actions from the contact list (see image). Developers can also create new widgets to plug in.
  • Unified inbox to browse email across multiple accounts.
  • Virtual keyboard improvements.
  • Camera enhancements (built-in flash support, digital zoom, white balance, etc.)
  • HTML5 support in browser: database API, app caching, geo-location API and <video> tag
  • Enhanced Bluetooth Support: BT2.1 and new BT profiles support, including Object Push Profile.

You can read about Google’s announcement here. There is also a short video that demonstrates some of the new 2.0 functionality. It’s difficult to say which features of this release are the most important because they are all pretty significant. Some of our thoughts:

  • Quick Contact blends can blend contact list with social networks, essentially turning Android phones into a more social experience.
  • Exchange support has a very big impact on their business customers, as Exchange support is the first thing they ask for. To be clear, I don’t think Android is there yet with business users as they are still missing a lot of things (like encryption), but they are clearly making progress.
  • Bluetooth OPP profile support can have a big impact on gaming and the types of cross-screen applications that can be developed.
  • HTML5 support is also a big one. Safari on the iPhone already supports app caching and geo-location APIs as well

It’s very impressive that Google has churned out so many OS releases in such a short time. OS 1.1 was only released in February 2009, and they shipped 1.5 in April, 1.6 in September and now 2.0. Android obviously has a lot of momentum with major OEMs, but it still remains to be seen whether there will be significant user uptake.

   
          Quick Connect                         Unified Inbox                    Multiple Sync’ing Accounts

Here is a short video from Google that introduces the new OS:

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