Squirrelfish wasn't anywhere near ready when they started.<p>The button arrangement is likely something they don't have control over.  If you're going to release an open-source phone platform, you're not going to sign up many OEMs to use it if you dictate the details of where the buttons go. For better or worse, that's the kind of thing that the marketing people at the OEMs want to f*#&#38; with.