Another possibility is that this is as open as Android is ever going to be.
This is a great point. Many of us are imagining a hypothetical alternate world where Google forced all Android phones to be non-evil, but maybe that world can't exist. Maybe if Google was fascist about openness, the carriers would just ship Symbian and WinMo instead.
The original Droid was a high-water mark for openness and standardization on Android.
I would say the Nexus One is the high-water mark, although apparently many people never even knew that it existed due to the lack of marketing.
This is a great point. Many of us are imagining a hypothetical alternate world where Google forced all Android phones to be non-evil, but maybe that world can't exist. Maybe if Google was fascist about openness, the carriers would just ship Symbian and WinMo instead.
The original Droid was a high-water mark for openness and standardization on Android.
I would say the Nexus One is the high-water mark, although apparently many people never even knew that it existed due to the lack of marketing.