"Google isn't a company known for patience, but changing the world just can't be done in a day. "

Says Whom?

Anyone?

With the *thriving* homebrew community around the Iphone/iTouch, and business/games use about to explode with the launch of the appStore, who here has the time to bone up on a new OS when you could be getting started in the lucrative iphone game.

"Creating a new mobile platform takes many iterations (if one is not Steve Jobs)"

That'll be why it's missing such basic features as MMS, video recording et al will it?

Mine's the one folded into the shape of a unicorn.

"Creating a new mobile platform takes many iterations (if one is not Steve Jobs) as demonstrated by Microsoft, Symbian et al"

The tons of basic features that the iPhone left out says to me that even the much-hyped Job's needs a few iterations to get it right.

My guess is, Google will end up devoting alot more resources to the project so they are not shown to be liars or incompetent - either that, or they will just delete all references to android from the inta-web. If Google don't acknowledge your existence, then you may as well be dead.

iPhone is a 'safe' platform to develop for - similar to Nintendo Wii really, a quality proven product that's easy to use and fun - and most importantly, there is only one device form factor - so your app is going to run just fine as it is. However, that is also a flaw. The iPhone platform for all it's sexiness does not extend across multiple form factors due to Apple's very slow role out of products. On the other hand, with Android, Google have ensured the OS and GUI can adapt to a wide range of form factors - from screenless to touch screen plus slide out keyboard. And that will make it attractive to vertical markets, from the elderly (one button per key relative) to turnkey industrial (slide out keyboard, RFID reader etc etc). Effectively, Android could become the new Windows CE, but with the benefit of an iPhone like slick GUI and enthusiastic developer community.

would have been funnier if it was called a replicant..

'we're not computers...we're physical...'

Has anyone else noticed how creepy Sergey Brin comes across in the Android demo video? "Today I am going to make a video for the web. I think that I will wear the same shirt that I wore yesterday. I do not need to even fix my party-plane-hair. Why can not I remember how to use contractions?"

These aren't the droids you're looking for.

C3P0:Well,I am fluent in over 6,000,000 languages.

R2-D2:Beep-woop-woo-boop-beep

C3P0: Yes, thanks R2....except Chinese [scalds]