At the Google/T-Mobile gathering in San Francisco on July 10th, Andy Rubin clarified Google's intentions for Android and the Chrome OS, saying that neither excludes the other and that each addresses a different set of challenges. While Android is focused on telephony, Chrome OS is all about the web.
Rubin went on to say that Android will become much more socially integrated, offering the example of an incoming call notification window that displays an image of the caller, their name, and their latest Facebook status update. ?Social is a big push for now.? Additional options for Market payments, including bill to carrier, are in the works. With these changes will come a growing momentum in product availability.
Rubin made a point to state that one manufacturer had shown him 18 devices running the OS--not all of them necessarily ready for the streets. This could perhaps explain the specific number, 18, we all read earlier regarding the Android devices we should see by year's end. He mentioned again that there are 15 to 20 gadgets he expects to come to market this year so there's really no practical difference, but it was apparently significant enough a misunderstanding that he wanted to set things straight.
Not only are there tons of phones ready to drop with The Droid, there are all kinds of gadgets running the OS. And that doesn't just mean laptops. Rubin said that Android is already rocking GPS units and even does refrigerators. The end-goal is that all of these things will connect with one another. Anything and everything is the name of the game. Getting social is right. That is one flexible Android. One dirty, dirty Android.
Andy Rubin, Android visionary
Via WSJ