It’s been a pretty exciting week in the world of mobile devices. There has been news from Nokia, Sony, Apple and of course more updates on the Google Android platform.

Is it really 4 months since the first announcement for Android, the free open source software being developed by a coalition of around 30 mobile handset manufacturers. Well 4 months on and those lucky enough to attend the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona got their first hands on with devices running the software.  This is quite a milestone in the life of Android, and it hopefully means we are still on target to see the first commercially available handsets running the operating system within 2008.

The thing that really excites me about Android is that its open source platform should mean that the consumer will get a wide range of fantastic applications some of which I’m sure we will soon wonder how we ever did without. Of course this has always been the issue (sorry one of the issues) with the Apple iPhone, but again Steve Jobs has realised this and they plan to announce the SDK kit for the iPhone later this month (hopefully along with 3G - oh come on I can dream can’t I ?)

I know with my Nokia n95 this open source platform has meant a host of killer applications which I use on a daily basis, for both work and play, so I’m hoping this list will continue to grow with the introduction of Android. I also hope that these applications aren’t scaled down mobile versions of existing applications running on desktop computers today. I want to see fully functional applications running on our mobile devices, supported by fast connectivity, such as Edge or 3G. I believe this is the only way we will truly realise the dream of a personal computer in our pockets.  Speaking of Nokia, we also got the first glimpse of the replacement for the n95, the aptly named n96, which of course we have already covered in a previous post.

Sony Ericsson also made an announcement of their own with details emerging on the XPERIA X1 device. This device, which has an interface not unlike the Apple iPhone will have 3G (up to 3.6Mbps), support for video streaming, 3.2MP camera, a fully functional media player as well as support for office application such as Microsoft Exchange.

Looking at all the announcements over the past 10 days one thing is clear. Consumers are going to have a lot of choice in the coming months with mobile devices without having to sacrifice features, something I’m sure has been missing up to now. I for one am looking forward to this next generation mobile device era.