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Google has bluntly rejected widespread claims that it wants to clamp down on the open nature of the Android operating system.
Android VP of Engineering, Andy Rubin, said the firm “remains firmly committed to providing Android as an open source platform across many device types”.
Lately, Google has been subjected to growing speculation that it wants to curb the number of modifications made to its mobile operating system, which was born on the value of openness.
Game developers say the nature of Android has caused a fragmentation of the operating system, with numerous devices modifying it to suit their needs. This means that creating an app for each becomes an uphill struggle.
Moreover, alleged business insiders last week told Bloomberg that Google is trying to stop rival services – such as Facebook and Bing – from taking too much advantage of Android.
Facebook, for example, is trying to build an entire mobile operating system based on Android.
Adding to the rumours, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop recently said that Google’s philosophy of a true open software platform “may be where Android started but it’s not where Android is going.”
Yet Rubin said “there’s been a lot of misinformation in the press about Android and Google’s role in supporting the ecosystem”.
Writing on a Google Blog, he added: “We don’t believe in a ‘one size fits all’ solution. The Android platform has already spurred the development of hundreds of different types of devices – many of which were not originally contemplated when the platform was first created.”
He did not specifically address insider claims that Google was monitoring the development of Facebook’s own Android OS.
He did add, however: “If someone wishes to market a device as Android-compatible or include Google applications on the device, we do require the device to conform with some basic compatibility requirements.”
