Google Holds Honeycomb Tight

In the great mobile-device wars, Google (GOOG) has portrayed itself as the open-source crusader doing battle against the leaders in proprietary software—Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Research In Motion (RIM:CN).

Unlike its rivals, Google makes the underlying code for its popular Android operating system publicly available, and anyone can access it and tailor it for use in mobile phones, tablets, television set-top boxes, even automobiles.

So what happens when Google decides to keep the latest version of its operating system to itself? Android fans are about to find out.

Google says it will delay the distribution of its newest Android source code, dubbed Honeycomb, at least for the foreseeable future. The search giant says the software, which is tailored specifically for tablet computers that compete against Apples iPad, is not yet ready to be altered by outside programmers and customized for other devices, such as phones.
Plight of Small Developers

In the past, Google has given device makers early access to versions of Android so they could work on their products. It would then typically release the source code to the masses a few months later, letting all comers do what they want with the code. HTC, Samsung Electronics, Motorola Mobility Holdings, and other big manufacturers already have access to Honeycomb.

Its the throngs of smaller hardware makers and software developers that will now have to wait for the software. The delay will probably be several months. To make our schedule to ship the tablet, we made some design tradeoffs, says Andy Rubin, vice-president for engineering at Google and head of its Android group. We didnt want to think about what it would take for the same software to run on phones. It would have required a lot of additional resources and extended our schedule beyond what we thought was reasonable. So we took a shortcut.

Rubin says that if Google were to open-source the Honeycomb code now, as it has with other versions of Android at similar periods in their development, it couldnt prevent developers from putting the software on phones and creating a really bad user experience. We have no idea if it will even work on phones.

Android is an open-source project, he adds. We have not changed our strategy.
In Its Own Interests

Dave Rosenberg, a longtime executive in the open-source software world, describes Googles moves as an affront to hard-core open-source enthusiasts but adds that he isnt surprised. Everyone expects this level of complete trust from a company thats worth $185 billion, he says. To me, that is ridiculous. You have to be realistic and see that Google will do what is in [its] best interests at all times.

Nevertheless, the open-ended delay will likely generate unease among device makers, application developers, and members of the open-source community, many of whom are financially and philosophically invested in Android. Some critics have long questioned Googles commitment to openness, and this latest news will give them added ammunition.

It may also provide justification for critics of Android, who argued that Google created what amounts to a Wild West of mobile software by allowing people to do what they pleased with Android. Some of the early Android tablets, for example, looked silly when compared with the iPad, mostly because Android hadnt been built for these types of devices.

Still, device makers took the code and dished out subpar tablets. This time around, Google appears to be reining in openness in favor of a highly controlled release of Honeycomb.