Originally Posted By: hybrid8
Bottom line is that Android is heavily segmented and no one product or even product line is going to come close to matching RIM and Apple. We might even see the full sum of Android products showing lower numbers. Product segmentation helped put WinMo into the position it's in now. It was easy for RIM and Apple to come in and eat MS' lunch.

I'll partly agree and partly disagree. Google is positioning Android in much the same way that Microsoft originally wanted to position Windows Mobile: a solution for hardware vendors who need a smartphone software platform on their device. So, just like with Windows on "real" computers, there is no one canonical hardware product that represents any sort of platonic ideal. However, just like with Windows, you'll have all the hardware vendors falling all over themselves to one-up each other on the aspects they can control (e.g., size, weight, battery life, screen quality, etc.).

What's notably different from Windows, in either the desktop or mobile space, is the open-source nature of Android. This means that users can ostensibly build their own image and install it on their phones. It also means that manufacturers can customize the software to the point that it's not really even Android any more, forking the codebase or whatever else.

To some extent, Android is fulfilling the wishes of the desktop Linux crowd: an open-source platform, widely available, with real support from tier-1 hardware vendors. It's going to be fascinating to see how it plays out.