A problem with Podcasts is they can be so hard to reference, this is a problem for me as in a recent podcast I listened to there was a comment on the Android launch. The commenter felt the Google Android announcement was a complete let down due to it being only a platform and not a phone. Relying on phone makers to produce the hardware would detract from the possible brilliance of the phone “..if anyone can outbeat Apple, it’s Google.” The inference being that the implementation of the platform is as important to sucess as the platform itself, which is completely correct
It does not mean that Google would be better than other companies in designing that phone. They have done nothing in the past that would convice me that they have any design sense, they are good at function, but form is not their thing. Seperating the production of form and function is a risk, as the result may be a disjointed product. The payoff is the posibility that the best of each half mesh into a better whole than either could design individually. This is another case where the judgement cannot come Android phones have been on the market for a while. It may not be until they have been out for years.
I am surprised that Apple has gone with such a closed model for its phone. A major reason that Apple lost to IBM in the early PC wars to a large extent due to having a closed versus open platform. A closed platform gives tighter control, but will ultimatly lose to openess. Hopefully for Apple shareholders, Mr Jobs has learnt from history and will open up the platform as soon as there is credible competition, or the hype has died down.