Chris Goodrich

Another day, another article about Google's lack of openness.  This morning Endgadget reported the following:

A storm seems to be brewing over the realm of Android development. Bloomberg's Businessweek spies have received word from "a dozen executives working at key companies in the Android ecosystem" that Google is actively working to gain control and final say over customizations of its popular mobile OS.

This should not come as a surprise to anybody.  Google is a business and they aren't going to be the champion to open source software that everyone seems to expect them to be (or that they claim to be).  There is a long-term business model in this that will pay off for Google's shareholders at some point.  In fact, it would be failure of fiduciary duty if Google invested this level of resources without pay-off for shareholders.

Google is making a bold move towards a better, more unified, user experience on the Android platform.  In order for Android to truly cross the chasm to become a leader in the mobile platform market, they have to reduce this fragmentation and present a single unified user experience.  There is a very fine line between openness and mass consumer market appeal and if anybody can walk that line, it's Google.

So get over it and accept that Google will never be truly open, they'll only be more open than their competitors.