I feel the main reason android was so successful was google not only controls the software end, they also control a large part of the manufacturing end.<p>Google was able to say &quot;Ok, we want to add support for X thing into our OS, so rather than leave it there doing nothing lets build a phone around that feature&quot;.<p>Buy Motorola was the smartest push google has done in years. It gave them patents, manpower, and the ability to bring ANY technology they wanted to an at least small scale high quality production run.