Google's mobile operating system (OS) -- Android -- is one of the most successful mobile OS' in recent memory. According to Gartner -- Android sales for 2010 are 47 million devices worldwide and by 2014 we will be looking at 264 million Android devices. This is not a bad figure for an OS that had its initial released on October 21, 2008. Since then Google has rapidly deployed updates of the OS:
Handsets:
Symbian will remain at the top of Gartner's worldwide OS ranking due to Nokia's volume and the push into more mass market price points. However, by the end of the forecast period, the No. 1 spot will be contested with Android, which will be at a very similar share level.--Gartner
One of the pillars of Apple's success in the mobility space is its congruency. Google need not be a dictator -- the company should simply support minimum requirements. Perhaps - Google could tap the Open Handset Alliance to help it draft a list of minimum industry standards. Google is showing signs of bringing the industry into alignment with Gingerbread. Unfortunately, much of the logistics are being kept close to the vest. Why -- I am assuming that Schmidt simply does not want to upset the various OEMs, MNOs, semi-conductor makers and Android developers. After all -- this is an ecosystem and the most minor change could adversely affect Android's adoption.
Follow Ramon Nuez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ramonbnuezjr
When are you trollers going to learn. For every canned argument on your boiler room play book, we Open Source Guys have an answer. And that answer is being learned...by the public.
The biggest difficulty with fragmentation, comes from the third party interface skins such as Sense, Motoblur, Dell Design UX, Touchwiz. The most obtrusive of these is currently Sense.
Initially the manufacturers created these UI's in order to fill in missing features of older Android versions and give their devices some kind of unique identity. Now, they have begun to realize that stock Android is the way to go and they have been a bit embarassed by having to chase Google's tail on recent updates.
The G2 and the Nexus One are both pure phones and highly favored by those deep in the development community. They are often called the "Godphones" because of the absolute speed at which they can run when unhindered by any kind of external interface.
Motorola and Samsung have scaled back their third party UI's tremendously. The Droid X has no visual evidence of third party tinkering, and the Galaxy S touchwiz leaves only a few useful and subtle tweaks and features.
Now that the core OS has really caught up, you can look forward to seeing these third party skins totally vanish in the future, and when update time comes it won't just be the Nexus One and the G2 getting them.