If the name assigned to this attribute begins with a colon (':'), a new process, private to the application, is created when it's needed and the service runs in that process. If the process name begins with a lowercase character, the service will run in a global process of that name, provided that it has permission to do so. This allows components in different applications to share a process, reducing resource usage.代表在应用程序里，当需要该service时，会自动创建新的进程。而如果是android:process="remote"，没有“:”分号的，则创建全局进程，不同的应用程序共享该进程。

可能大家看了还是不多明白在此我用个小例子为大家解释

Eg、一

当设置为如下是

 <service android:name=".MessengerService"  android:process="：remote" ></service>

在MessengerService中 的pid是新的一个 （484） 不同于 main 的478

请看好多了一个进程。(pid就代表一个进程。)

Eg、二

当在清单中声明的是

 <service android:name=".MessengerService"                         ></service>

在activity和service在同一个进程中关于这个请详细参考（他们都是在346中）

Service详解（二）

有什么问题请指教，谢谢！

源码地址：http://csdn-qq282133-demo.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ServiceTest2

以下是转载的：

这里的android:process=":remote"，一开始我没有添加的，在同一个程序里使用IPC，即同一个程序作为客户端/服务器端，结果运行mRemoteService = IMyService.Stub.asInterface(service);时提示空指针异常。观察了人家的在不同程序里进行IPC的代码，也是没有这个android:process=":remote"的。后来在官方文档http://androidappdocs.appspot.com/guide/topics/manifest/service-element.html里了解到（留意第二段文字）：
android:process
The name of the process where the service is to run. Normally, all components of an application run in the default process created for the application. It has the same name as the application package. The <application> element's process attribute can set a different default for all components. But component can override the default with its own process attribute, allowing you to spread your application across multiple processes.

If the name assigned to this attribute begins with a colon (':'), a new process, private to the application, is created when it's needed and the service runs in that process. If the process name begins with a lowercase character, the service will run in a global process of that name, provided that it has permission to do so. This allows components in different applications to share a process, reducing resource usage.
也就是说android:process=":remote"，代表在应用程序里，当需要该service时，会自动创建新的进程。而如果是android:process="remote"，没有“:”分号的，则创建全局进程，不同的应用程序共享该进程。