Army picks Android

The Army intends to distribute a universal smartphone type of device to be used by all military personnel. That way soldiers in the field and their commanders can use consistent mapping software and other familiar applications along with consistent messaging. They’re now testing a device called the Joint Battle Command-Platform (not all that catchy but what are you going to do). And it looks like its running on an Android platform. While no one was expecting they would go with Apple’s iOS, it is noteworthy that the military didn’t try to build their own platform from scratch. Since it’s Android based, it certainly opens up a lot more possibilities for app developers who already know the platform to build new things for it.