Though I am not utterly convinced yet that Google will be as successful to 'embrace' the handset with the Android/OHA initiative as it is with search&more in the web and on PCs, I am absolutely excited about the technical choices the developers made with respect to Java:
Android brings full blown Java JDK 1.1 with Java always on to mass market handsets. Java therefore sits in the kernel space, not the application space as it usually does in the industry. This means total portability and thus commoditization of the underlying handsets. No wonder that market leader Nokia didn't join - they rather like it native C/C++ for their models only!
As a direct result, integrating and running db4o is a piece of cake. This morning here in Beijing, Andrew build a quick eval and test run to store very simple flat objects (were db4o is normally at par or weaker than SQL databases - it's really competitive only for more structured, deeper object graphs) - and even these results are great: db4o runs without a snag on Android and is, out of the box and without optimization, already 20% faster:
The Java Delvek VM and all other parts of the stack are entirely open source and available under Apache license, which makes live very easy for everybody (except close source vendors of similar components, of course).
Also, we see that they have dropped SQLite into the package, but don't really integrate or leverage the data store for data sharing or other services (as of yet). There's no JDBC driver or any form of object handling - you have to hack strings and think about persistence all the time, if you then need it. And, of course, there's no Hibernate nearby to save you...
This is the opportunity to show that db4o can provide a Royce Rolls where the default solution is not much more than a bike. db4objects will actively invest to enhance Android with a professional persistence option, working closely together with members of the initial OHA alliance. Watch out for shared application objects (as content providers), a powerful fulltext a la Google desktop on handsets, geotagging and navigation support, and much more!
Stay tuned!