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Monday, February 2, 2009

Brew Mobile Platform (BMP) Vs Google Android

Qualcomm's brew mobile platform (BMP) the latest version of brew has a lot of modifications compared to its previous version. The changes seem to be mainly targeting the challenge given by android, the open source platform from google. Qualcomm is a member of the OHA, a partner in the development of Android as well.

Programming support:
BMP has some unique featues like it supports lua scripts, flash programming, trigML, lua and trigML debugging capabilities. The combination of such powerful programming languages in one platform is a boon the developer.

Android on the other hand is programmed in java. In java you have libraries for all functionalities which make programming easy. The wide range of tools available to the developer makes application development a piece of cake.

Platform structure:
Brew platform is open which allows a wide range of applications to be developed. Even though the platform is open, the source is still not open. A lot of code is made open to the OEM's and not to the developer. Android code is also not completely open as well but comparatively this is more open.

Application Market:
One of the biggest disadvantages or advantage in being a BREW developer is that for the developer to post any application in the server and to be downloaded by the user the process is very lengthy and expensive. With the introduction of BMP Qualcomm claims that the certification process is greatly simplified and takes less than 2 days. But yet for the application to be available to the user it needs to be uploaded by the operator/carrier. This process may take lot of time. The same in the case of android market is very simple. The developer just needs to upload it in the market and the user can directly download it from there. The only difference is that the applications can be bug prone and its not certified. You may not get tech support for these apps.

Overall Result:
This has resulted in the google market having many app and very popular whereas the brew application market is closed and completely controlled by Qualcomm though its certification process.

Since many parts of BMP is closed there is only one BMP phone that has come into the market whereas it is now crowded with android phones everywhere. Surely it looks like time for open source...

What do you feel about BMP and android. Which platform do you prefer.

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