免费时代结束？谷歌暂停“蜂巢”开源激怒OEM厂商

Google延期发布Android 3.0平板系统的开源版，并拒绝给出具体时间。Google此举惹恼了很多希望与苹果iPad竞争的移动设备厂商，也彰显了Android这样广泛部署的开源系统在面对苹果这样的垂直整合厂商时所面临的困境。

台湾一家大型移动设备厂商的一位高级工程师说：“Google拒绝为我们提供任何与Android 3.0相关的信息，结果是没人能拿出不同于参考设计的设备。”

只为自我保护？

Google的一位发言人表示：“Android 3.0从设计之初就为大屏幕尺寸而考虑，并改善了Android系统广受欢迎的控件、多任务、浏览器、通知和定制能力。”

“能为Android平板提供这些功能让我们倍感激动，但要想把这个系统用于手机等其它类型的设备还有很多工作要做。”Google发言人接着说，“在此之前，我们决定不开放Android 3.0的源代码。”

他接着补充说：“我们致力于将Android打造为跨越不同设备类型的开源系统，并且将在工作完成后即可开源。”

Google凭借Android 3.0快速跳上了平板大潮，让摩托罗拉得以在苹果通过iPad重新定义平板市场不到一年的时间里推出平板设备。

但如何在覆盖更多的移动设备厂商与控制代码及设备质量之间取得平衡令人困扰。此前版本的Android面向手机，任意第三方可以对Android进行定制。但是，这种方式也催生了大量不被消费者接受的Android产品。

业内人士表示谷歌推迟发布Android 3.0操作系统对于三星、戴尔、宏达电、宏碁等竞争对手并没有什么影响，摩托罗拉移动不久前就已经正式发售了旗下采用Android 3.0操作系统的Xoom平板电脑产品。Gartner分析师Carolina Milanesi表示，谷歌方面希望让那些与其有密切合作关系的厂商使用Android 3.0 Honeycomb操作系统，并希望通过这样的合作来缩小相关的影响。她还表示，谷歌采取这一措施，目的在于阻止廉价硬件制造商通过偷工减料和低价策略进入平板电脑市场，以避免Android的用户体验受损。因此目前谷歌的做法是可以理解的。

虽然Google将此举称作是为确保Honeycomb用户体验而采取的一项不得已的措施。但是，这一决定与Google一贯奉行的开放源代码政策是相悖的。也使得有部分业内人士猜测是否免费时代已经结束？

下一页：Android将会分裂？

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Android将会分别面向手机和平板？

在本月早先举办的一次Android开发者大会上，两位Google开发者展示了运行Android 3.0系统的摩托罗拉Xoom平板。当时他们就说Google还没决定何时将Android 3.0的代码开源，并且表示Google将会推出一个为智能手机进行优化的独立版本。

Google用户界面开发者Chet Haase在会上对超过400位与会者说：“Android 3.0为平板而生，但我们也对用户界面进行了很多通用性改进。”

宏基、戴尔、HTC和三星预计都会很快推出Android 3.0平板。有些系统工程师对Android平板设备缺乏差异化深感忧虑。

International Data Corp的资深半导体分析师Mario Morales认为，如果Google每九个月发布一次新版Android，系统厂商就无法及时通过开发新设备收回投资，从而导致Android市场的分裂。

Google没有表示将在何时发布Android 3.0的开源版本。Google工程副总裁、Android负责人Andy Rubin表示公司担心有些手机厂商会试图将平板系统用在自己的智能手机上。

Rubin在接受《商业周刊》采访时说如果Google现在将Android 3.0代码开源，会无法阻止开发者将该系统用于手机“并带来糟糕的用户体验。我们甚至不知道它到底能不能在手机上工作。”

至于Google准备何时开放新系统源码，Rubin称不一定，可能要几个月，只要源码能适合更多设备就行了。

一直以来，让系统与设备匹配的工作全都由Google自己完成。Rubin说：“为了如期推出平板，我们在设计上选择了择衷方案。我们不必考虑如何让同一款软件在众多手机上运行。如果真要考虑，它会需要很多额外的资源，需要扩大规划，这会超过我们的合理思考范畴。所以说我们走了捷径。”

正是所谓的“捷径”带来困扰，这也是Android存在的问题。例如：面向平板的Android 3.0，更倾向智能手机的Android 2.2和2.3，许多分析师怀疑Google是不是准备将Android分成两派，一个面向平板，一个面向智能手机。

点击参考原文：Google's Android tablet delay angers OEMs

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Google's Android tablet delay angers OEMs

Rick Merritt

Google is for an unspecified time limiting the release of Honeycomb, the tablet version of Android, a move frustrating many mobile systems makers who want to compete with the Apple iPad. Google's move highlights the difficulties of a broad open source movement like Android to compete with a vertically integrated manufacturer like Apple.

"Google refused to give out any information about Honeycomb, and the end result was no one could deviate from the reference design," said a senior engineer with a large mobile systems maker in Taiwan.

"Android 3.0, Honeycomb, was designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes and improves on Android favorites such as widgets, multi-tasking, browsing, notifications and customization," said a Google spokesman.

"While we’re excited to offer these new features to Android tablets, we have more work to do before we can deliver them to other device types including phones," the spokesman said. "Until then, we’ve decided not to release Honeycomb to open source," he said.

"We’re committed to providing Android as an open platform across many device types and will publish the source as soon as it’s ready," he added.

Google was quick to jump on the tablet phenomenon with Honeycomb, enabling Motorola to release a tablet in less than a year after Apple defined the new market with its original iPad.

However, it is clearly struggling to find the balance of how to enable a broad industry of mobile systems makers without losing control of the quality of its code and the systems that use it.

At an Android developer conference earlier this month, two Google developers showed Honeycomb running on the Motorola Xoom tablet released in February. At that time they said Google had not decided when it would release the source code for Honeycomb, and they said Google plans to release a separate version of the code optimized for smartphones.

"Honeycomb is all about the tablet, but along the way we made a lot of general improvements in the user interface," said Chet Haase, a Google UI developer who showed the software to an audience of more than 400 at the conference in San Mateo, Calif.

Acer, Dell, HTC and Samsung are expected to roll out tablets using Honeycomb soon. Some systems engineers expressed frustration that the other tablets will be me-too devices with little differentiation.

If Google releases versions of Android every nine months, systems makers won't be able to get a return on their investment in developing new Android devices and Google could fragment the Android market, said Mario Morales, a lead semiconductor analyst for International Data Corp.

Google has not said when it will release an open source version of Honeycomb, the version of Android 3.0 tailored for tablets. The company is concerned some handset makers might try to use the tablet software in smartphones, said Andy Rubin, vice-president for engineering at Google and head of its Android group in an interview with Businessweek.

Rubin told Businessweek that if Google were to open-source the Honeycomb code now, as it has with other versions of Android at similar periods in their development, it couldn't prevent developers from putting the software on phones "and creating a really bad user experience. We have no idea if it will even work on phones," Rubin said.