Android on Desktop

Android OS has taken up the computing world’s frenzy in last couple of years. There have been many attempts to bring Android on Desktop, but none of them has become as successful as Android on Mobile phones. Lets first try to examine why this thought comes into mind.

Android on Desktop, Why ?

There are quite few very obvious advantages that we see when we think of Android on Desktop, viz:

• Extremely low hardware resource requirement.
• Advantage mobility.
• Cross platform of Apps.
• Much better support for Touch screen.

But then, why it did not pickup, despite some very big brands like HP, lenovo coming out with Android based desktop solutions. Remember its not one single offering, but a series of offerings from these brands.

Android on Desktop, Why not ?

1. Desktop applications don’t run natively on Android platform. (you may port it or use some emulator, but that does not give native performance)
2. Developing desktop applications on Android platform can be very cumbersome and time taking. (lets face it android is not designed for desktop use, its a Mobile OS, and so are its development tools)
3. Mobility is not a advantage. If you want to use Desktop applications you are not mobile.
4. Hardware device driver support is limited. This becomes especially big challenge, when you want to use this for applications like POS or speciality applications, since it requires some special hardware like barcode scanners, bio metric devices, or thermal printers.
5. Better touch screen support is generally not an advantage since desktop applications generally don’t use Touch screen, the users will always use keyboard and mouse, they won’t be using touchscreen that much.
6. Porting a desktop application on always time taking and costly also.

Android on desktop, to do or not ?

May be we all will have to wait till the cross platform compatibility is matured, and also all the device manufacturers start giving Android drivers also along with Windows and Linux Drivers.