Sorry, but I'm not really parsing your post correctly.
You're saying that people are comparing iOS with Android, and drawing parallels to Mac vs. Windows, and saying that in the end the more open, free-form platform will win (i.e. Windows triumphant over Mac).
But Windows did (and still does) have a host of meddlesome third parties all deploying major software out of sync with each other according to their own whims. It's succeeded despite that. Think: graphics drivers, browsers, office suites, etc etc.
I don't think this is really the issue, the issue is that most Android users have no ability to upgrade their phones. Even if you buy a store-configured Dell box, when Windows 8 comes out, you can drive to Best Buy, get a copy of Windows, come home, pop the disc in, and bam, you've got all the new hotness.
Android would be a lot more compelling if users could do this. I'm sure a significant segment of the market would even pay for such upgrades. As it is though, regardless of willingness to pay, the average Android user cannot install new versions until their OEM allows it.
This actually reminds me more of old graphics drivers. In the old days, no matter what graphics chipset you had in your laptop, you couldn't get drivers directly from NVidia/ATI/etc. You had to wait until your OEM (Dell/Toshiba/Lenovo/etc) ported the reference drivers and released them to you. Suffice it to say, they didn't do this. At all, and mobile graphics chipsets were a nightmare of incompatibilities, bugs, and general misery.
At some point NVidia started requiring all their vendors make their hardware compatible with the reference driver, and started offering drivers themselves. The situation improved dramatically almost overnight. Maybe this is what Google needs.
That's exactly what I'm saying. With Windows, you could follow as close to the cutting edge as you wanted. With Android, your hands are tied unless you want to hack your phone. For the hacker types that have so far pushed Android adoption, this is a big deal.
Windows users were still beholden to multiple parties for current hardware drivers.
I remember trying to install a late beta of windows 95 on then recent, but not cutting edge, hardware and being stymied. A few days later I installed RedHat on the same box and it all just worked.
Much more recently, I was looking for an ExpressCard USB3 adapter, but it seemed like most of the options didn't have working drivers for 64-bit windows 7
You're saying that people are comparing iOS with Android, and drawing parallels to Mac vs. Windows, and saying that in the end the more open, free-form platform will win (i.e. Windows triumphant over Mac).
But Windows did (and still does) have a host of meddlesome third parties all deploying major software out of sync with each other according to their own whims. It's succeeded despite that. Think: graphics drivers, browsers, office suites, etc etc.
I don't think this is really the issue, the issue is that most Android users have no ability to upgrade their phones. Even if you buy a store-configured Dell box, when Windows 8 comes out, you can drive to Best Buy, get a copy of Windows, come home, pop the disc in, and bam, you've got all the new hotness.
Android would be a lot more compelling if users could do this. I'm sure a significant segment of the market would even pay for such upgrades. As it is though, regardless of willingness to pay, the average Android user cannot install new versions until their OEM allows it.
This actually reminds me more of old graphics drivers. In the old days, no matter what graphics chipset you had in your laptop, you couldn't get drivers directly from NVidia/ATI/etc. You had to wait until your OEM (Dell/Toshiba/Lenovo/etc) ported the reference drivers and released them to you. Suffice it to say, they didn't do this. At all, and mobile graphics chipsets were a nightmare of incompatibilities, bugs, and general misery.
At some point NVidia started requiring all their vendors make their hardware compatible with the reference driver, and started offering drivers themselves. The situation improved dramatically almost overnight. Maybe this is what Google needs.