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LAST WEEK SAW the much-antici- pated release of Motorola's latest cell phone offering, the Droid, which has brought renewed attention to the rapidly expanding field of open-source software.

Powered by an updated version of Google's Android phone operating system, the Droid has already been called one of the premier challengers to Apple's iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry in the smart-phone market because of the remarkable utility of its feature set.

The Droid can run multiple third-party applications at once (the iPhone cannot), is a fully functioning Global Positioning System unit with voice navigation and even has a handy function that allows users to search the entire phone verbally for files or applications.

The best part is that all of these features are included in an operating system that is completely free and is likely to continue developing as more experimentation is done with its open-source code.

Even more exciting than open source's future with cell phones, however, is the potential that it has to make an impact on other forms of technology.

Everything from ticket kiosks to washing machines could be a platform for an open-source operating system like Android because it offers a much simpler and more stable foundation for the basic programs that run on those devices.

Sehat Sutardja, the chief executive of the Marvell Technology Group, explained the example of the washing machine by pointing out that manufacturers have begun using graphical interfaces to make their devices more intuitive to consumers. Even with only a few settings available--lights, colors, hot water, cold water--a washing machine is often more attractive to buyers if its options are presented in an easy-to-understand visual format.

To do so, however, devices need operating systems to run on, and it is hard to justify spending hundreds of dollars per device to equip each one with Microsoft Windows or Apple OS X. Open-source software like Android is not only a cheaper alternative, but is also one that is not as likely to crash since there is a lot less going on behind the scenes than there is in a full-fledged operating system like Windows.