It seems that Google Mobile Platforms director Andy Rubin really generated some buzz with his prediction at Google IO that there could be as many as 20 Android phones available by the end of this year. While this was interesting (but not really that surprising given Android's success and growth to date), what I found of more interest were his comments regarding Google's commitment to Android as an "open" platform as well as clarification of the various Android flavours available to carriers and handset manufacturers.

Google has taken some flack from critics who see the strongly Google-branded [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] and [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] phones as cause for concern regarding the openness of the Android platform. Even manufacturers have expressed some concern, most notably [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] which blamed its delay in announcing an Android phone on the fact that "some operators were concerned about the vision Google has". In an effort to allay these concerns, Google has actually released three different versions of Android as follows:

Option 1: Obligation free – manufacturers can install Android on their devices and provide access to as many apps as they want but cannot preload Google applications like Gmail or Google Calendar.

Option 2: Same as option 1 but manufacturers must sign a distribution agreement to preload Google applications on the device.

Option 3: Google Experience phones – includes Google branding and Google applications which cannot be removed from the phone. This option also provides uncensored access to the Android Market.

By offering these three flavours of Android, manufacturers and carriers are able to choose to what degree the phones integrate with Google so in the case of Samsung's I7500 (a.k.a. [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]), it looks like they’ve gone the Option 2 route as opposed to producing another HTC-like Google Experience Phone. Hopefully we’ll start to see more customisation of the interface and applications as manufacturers embrace the openness of the Android platform. This can only help to increase the number of new Android phones released this year as well as the number of carriers that offer these phones.

Via: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]


[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]