Android 1.6 SDK is here
I am happy to let you know that Android 1.6 SDK is available for download. Android 1.6, which is based on the donut branch from the Android Open Source Project, introduces a number of new features and technologies. With support for CDMA and additional screen sizes …
Context & Ripple Effects
The 1.6 SDK lands about five months after Google began preparing developers for Android 1.5 in April 2009, continuing a cadence that has run since the early-look SDK of November 2007 and the m5 preview builds of early 2008. Each stop has widened what a third party can build: this one ships from the donut branch of the Android Open Source Project, so it is public source rather than a closed Google drop.
What changes with 1.6 is reach and shape: CDMA support opens Android beyond the GSM operators it has been tied to so far, and additional screen sizes mean the platform no longer assumes a single reference display.
First-order effects
- Developers downloading the SDK today have to make their apps resolution-aware and can now target CDMA handsets — code written against the 1.5-era assumptions needs rework before those devices arrive.
- CDMA carriers, previously outside Android's footprint, become an addressable launch channel for OEMs building donut-based phones.
Second-order effects
- Hardware makers gain cover to differentiate on screen size and radio rather than converging on one Google-approved form factor, which pulls component suppliers (displays, CDMA chipsets) into the Android bill of materials.
- GSM-first carriers face competitors who can field Android devices on networks they do not operate, pressuring them to respond with their own Android commitments or exclusive hardware deals.
Third-order effects
- By making multi-resolution and multi-radio official platform features, Google is institutionalizing device diversity as a design constraint — the developer-facing cost that fragmentation debates later turn on.
- A repeatable open-source SDK cadence positions AOSP as the shared base on which any carrier or OEM can ship, shifting control of Android's evolution toward a distributed ecosystem rather than a single handset partner.
The trend: Android is scaling from a single-operator GSM phone into a multi-carrier, multi-screen platform, with each open-source SDK release widening who can build and sell it.