This is an old but thoughtful article: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/what-google-mus.html
> There's just one problem: The carriers. A big part of the iPhone's success is > due to Apple's clout, which enabled it, in effect, to tell AT&T to sit down > and shut up about this or that feature requirement. Once other carriers saw > the iPhone's success in the United States, they wanted in on that action, so > Apple was able to dictate terms globally, just as it had a year before in the > U.S. > That's why I predict that Android will soon have as many different flavors as > there are carriers. Some carriers will customize it so that their phones > can't install any applications other than the ones they authorize. Some will > modify the operating system to work with one of their custom services or > another. Some will no doubt cripple it, removing features that they consider > threatening to their own businesses (like the ability to run VoIP apps). > And that's their right. Because Android uses the Apache license, anyone is > free to take it and customize it to their heart's content, even if such > customizations are appalling to the open source community. (There's also no > requirement that customizations be themselves open-sourced for the benefit of > the whole Android community.) >In short order, "Android" will become meaningless to consumers, and most >carriers won't even advertise the fact that their phones use the operating >system. Instead, they'll advertise their phones' features, as they always >have, and emphasize the benefits of those features to the users. This is exactly what's happening in the HTC Magic that will be sold in China soon. (http://tinyurl.com/d62mzt) There seems no Gmail, Gtalk or other google branded apps, and not a word about "Android", even "Google". And it has been said that Google apps are removed from the phone distributed by Orange in France....http://androidforums.com/t-mobile- g1/4221-g1-france-orange-no-google-apps.html Hope Google has heard about voices like this and is taking some action on it.... --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
