Which phone manufacturer in the world would want to look like the guy next to them, whether in terms of hardware or software? Product differentiation is where the game is won, that’s a fact. I’ll bet my last dollar that “your phones would look exactly like everybody else’s” wasn’t the pitch that Google used to convince HTC and Motorola to sign up.

And you make it sound like it’s so easy for Google to tell the entire Android supply chain what to do, what to update etc, like Apple does with the iPhone’s. Apple literally has its entire supply chain by their throats. They can even get Foxconn to drive its staff to suicide just for losing a test phone, picture that.

Google, on the other hand, has to deal with the fact that each manufacturer are staking their own reputation on the platform together with Google. They have every right to leave their own mark on it and they deserve whatever plaudits/brickbats that come with what they’ve done with it.

Competition and an open platform comes with certain drawbacks. Deal with it. It ain’t perfect but neither is a Jobs dictatorship. You chose and you live with it.