Google touts major improvements with Android 2.2

Android 2.2 has a host of new enterprise and consumer featuresFroyo, has a host of new enterprise and consumer features.

Google has used the I/O developer conference to launch the latest version of its mobile operating system.

Android 2.2 is the fastest browser in the industry, according to Google vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra, and features 20 new tools for the enterprise sector and a new software development kit with open APIs.

"If you believe in openness, if you believe in choice, if you believe in innovation for everyone, then welcome to Android," he said.

The operating system is two to five times faster thanks to advances in the compilers and the Dalvik virtual machine, and how it is ported to new processors and platforms.

On the enterprise front, Android 2.2 comes with full support for Microsoft Exchange, including access to the global address book and the ability to translate native security features to mobile handsets.

APIs have also been added to allow controls such as the automatic wiping of lost or stolen handsets and other remote management features.

"As Android's popularity has grown, people have been taking these devices to work," said Gundotra. "We have heard loud and clear that they need new features. "

Over the course of 22 demonstrations, Gundotra showed off some of the new features in the new software development kit.

These include the ability to transfer a user's personal data with new applications, better access to web applications, automatic updates, access to the APIs to use hardware devices on the handset like the accelerometer and camera, and Google Intent, which allows full web pages to be sent automatically.

Google is also making its voice translation and search APIs open to developers, and showed off an application that allows real-time translation from English to French. The operating system also supports Adobe's Flash and Air platforms, something Gundotra chided Apple for not providing.

Android is gaining huge momentum, he said, claiming that there are now more than 100,000 handset activations a day, and that Android leads the market in the adoption of smartphone internet browsing.