Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

At the Mobile World Congress yesterday ARM showed several journalists a running Android prototype device.

Engadget has photos which even show a sneak peak at some of the upcoming SDK changes.

One thing that I did not realize until recently is that hardware manufacturers are bullish on Android too - not just developers who want a simpler picture like myself. The ARM guys ran the prototype on a chipset that is several revs old and available now on "lower end" phones already on the market. As one of them put it "Android provides a complete application framework, which can be put on chipsets with a lot less work."

Yes, as the article also notes, others have tried the "total platform" approach to simplify the mobile market before, with varying degrees of success. I think this one is the perfect combination though, it's backed by Google (and a host of other companies), it's planned to be open source (though source and licensing are not open yet, they will be, much like the route GWT took I presume). That one-two punch means robust corporate support to keep engineering moving and professional, and an openness that allows flexibility and innovation that other closed platforms don't have.