[SkyMarshal]

Hopefully Google and the Android kit makers will get motivated enough to standardize Android a bit more, enough to at least provide platform consistency across brand implementations.

Also, hopefully they do it in collaboration with the hardware manufacturers, instead of in spite of them.

[dagw]

I doubt it will happen. One of Android's big selling points for phone manufacturers was that they could use Android as a free and solid base to add their own unique additions to. There really is little interest from them to make Android phones generic and interchangeable. If the platforms are too consistent then there is no reason people won't replace their Samsung Android phone with an HTC Android phone next time they upgrade, and Samsung certainly doesn't want that.

[SkyMarshal]

All true, but it's also true that it's ultimately in all their best interests to build a strong app ecosystem for the platform as a necessary but not sufficient requisite for competing with Apple.

The individual hardware makers may not think that way, but Google certainly should be, and is in a position to frame that problem and take the lead in solving it.

[gte910h]

Additionally, handset makers have a contrary interest to keeping things updated. They literally make money when you decide you have to buy a new phone because your old one can't run the newest apps.

[theBobMcCormick]

The problem isn't platform consistency. From an app developer (or app purchaser I suppose) perspective there's a great deal of consistency between any Android phones running the same version of the Android OS. The problem is how many phones are not only running older versions of the Android OS, but even worse how many manufacturers are currently shipping phones running older versions of the OS.