If you hang out at mobile tech sites like ours, you’ll often hear that companies like Motorola or Samsung are “ruining” the Android experience with a custom user interface layer. It’s often said that Google should do more to ensure that handset makers don’t monkey with the Android experience.
Well, that’s not going to happen any time soon, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said. The Google leader said, “if we were to put those type of restrictions on an open source product, we’d be violating the principle of open source.”
This means that carriers like Verizon will be able to tailor the experience of devices it carries. The Samsung Fascinate comes with Bing as the only default search engine.
AT&T has also used Android in ways that some open source advocates don’t appreciate. You aren’t able to sideload apps on many of its devices and the carrier’s Motorola Android devices come with Yahoo as the default search engine.
What’s funny about Google’s claims about violating open source principles with requirements is that it is being sued by Skyhook over that very issue. Skyhook said the search giant is using its clout with Android to force Motorola to drop Skyhook’s positioning technology.
I’m actually fine with companies building on top of Android, even if it means that software updates don’t come as quickly. Mobile geeks like us always want the latest .X version but let’s stop pretending like Google is some sort of master at UI work. I think HTC Sense looks better than stock Android and TouchWiz also has a lot of potential.
Furthermore, I don’t want to discourage software innovation. The myTouch Slide does some cool things with the notification bar and hopefully this will spur Google to make improvements on it at the core levels.
Check out the video below for more of Schmidt’s thoughts.
[Via Search Engine Land]