Jelly Bean is official and it looks glorious. Developers will no doubt want to get their hands on the new operating system to take advantage of all the new toys available to them. Google knows this and has already released an SDK alongside some new tools for their hardware partners.
Up first is the Android 4.1 SDK and developers will be able to get their hands on it today via the Android developers site. With Jelly Bean coming out in mid-July, developers might not be able to get something big out by launch, but they can start making new apps right now. Being able to take advantage of all the new features like Voice Search, Google Now and the features yet to be announced.
Google has always been good to developers so the SDK was expected. What wasn’t expected was the PDK (Platform Development Kit) for their hardware partners. Google hopes that this will allow their hardware partners to stay on top of all the new innovations in Android. Hardware developers like HTC, Samsung and others will be able to get a hold of a PDK well before the launch of a new Android OS to get a head start on developing their software to be integrated deeply with Android.
With this, Google may help stem some of the Android fragmentation that has been hurting the market. When hardware manufacturers develop their software around the same PDK, it should make everything more consolidated and fluid for everybody. It’s a win-win for Google, developers, hardware manufacturers and consumers.
Google is pushing Android hard today at I/O. We’ll keep you updated here with all the latest and greatest news about Android.
[Lead image: Engadget]