Common Sense
Further embracing the openness of the Android platform, HTC has announced OpenSense, opening up HTC's Sense interface to developers.
Speaking at Qualcomm's Uplinq conference HTC CEO Peter Chou explained: "People tell us how much they love HTC Sense. Now we will make Sense available to developers." The announcement comes not long after HTC declared that it would no longer be using locked bootloaders on its handsets, allowing owners to install their own Android ROMs on HTC devices. The combination of the two announcements shows an encouraging acknowledgement of, and commitment to the developer community from HTC.
OpenSense is being made available by the newly launched HTCDev website which will give developers access to tools and guides on developing Sense-like applications. The catch of OpenSense is that the SDK is geared specifically toward HTC products, limiting the number of devices programs developed using it can run on. The upside of this is that HTC is offering APIs that open up features currently only present on HTC devices - a Tablet Pen API for the HTC Flyer and Stereoscopic 3D API for the Evo 3D.
Given the relatively limited number of devices OpenSense apps will be able to run on, it will be interesting to see how much uptake HTC sees of its new development platform. Even if individual developers are put of, it's possible that telcos, which already customise handsets with their own apps, will appreciate the opportunity to make their tweaks to less conspicuous (and possibly even more useful).
