MIT and Google Android

I saw this article in my local paper this morning about MIT students developing software for Google Android.  It's interesting, but implies that the level of software development allowed in Android is a brand new thing.  What about Palm and WinMo?

"Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Hal Abelson put that question to about 20 computer science students this semester when he gave them one assignment: Design a software program for cellphones that use Google Inc.'s upcoming Android mobile operating system. In the process, they revealed the power of an open system like Android to shake up the mobile phone industry, where wireless companies are being pressured to loosen the control they have maintained over what devices do. If the brainstorms of these MIT students are an indication, phones will soon challenge the Internet as a source of innovation. For these students at least, cellphones should be all about location, location, location. Most of the projects produced by the seven teams of students involved programs that let phones track people's physical place or that of their friends to help them do things and meet up."