Roberto Mateu

The most recent demo of Google’s Android platform should have Microsoft very worried and Apple agitated with the prospect of a good fight (In case you’re wondering, Palm is in the corner mumbling incoherently).

The software demoed by Google yesterday shows an advanced, usable and very polished user interface. Features such as:the drag down status bar and the gesture-based unlock are things I wish my iPhone had. No other interface has done that in the last year.

This is not an “iPhone Killer”, evidenced by Google’s own perception of the iPhone as expressed by of Vic Gundotra, Engineering VP:

“I think the iPhone is just a world-class device with a great Web browser that delivers in many respects on one of Google’s key goals: To bring the Web to the mobile device”

Android is going to be what the rest of the world uses. Google seems to have created the PC Compatible equivalent for the mobile era. While it may not be as elegant and perfectly integrated as the iPhone, its openness and price (free) will allow it fill the space that the iPhone doesn’t cover and even out-innovate Apple in these areas.

And where does Microsoft fit in all of this? Nowhere. At least not in the consumer space. Windows Mobile will continue to defend it’s corporate stronghold. But it’s already sharing this market with Blackberry devices. A third player (either Google or, gasp, Apple) coming into corporate market is not good news at all.

Yesterday I said that the next few years are going to be exciting for the Desktop. In the case of mobile devices, the next few months are going to be even more exciting.

The most exciting thing about the demo of Multi-Touch in Windows 7 at the D: conference is that it clearly shows that this is the next step of the desktop metaphor. Many will argue that this was evident even before the iPhone introduction. But for a while I felt there were some doubts about how useful Touch interfaces would be for current OS’s in the short-term.

The issue for me is that unlike mobile or “flat” devices the usefulness of a touch interface over keyboard and mouse is debatable. Yes, it’s very cool to pinch a picture to change its size. But is it quicker or easier than holding the corner of the window with the mouse?

For me the OLPC version 2 concept was a real eye opener. I now see a touch-screen based keyboard as part of the evolution of the PC hardware. As soon as a good enough way to provide feedback on the screen is introduced, a screen based keyboard will appear. Hard clicks keyboard purist will be up in arms, but even current Apple keyboards provide minimal feedback in a very thing package.

We still need to see what is Apple’s approach to the technology on the PC. Unlike Microsoft they understand that current desktop interfaces aren’t optimized for anything else than mouse and keyboard (I’m looking at you Tablet PC). In any case, with Windows 7 coming in 2010, it sure looks like the next few years are going to be exciting once again in the UI department.