Over the past few months, Google’s mobile operating system has roiled the tech industry. Android debuted on a host of fantastic phones, won praise from reviewers and customers, and generally got everyone in a froth over the next big tech war. It’s Apple vs. Google in a fight to the death. En garde!

This week was an especially good one for Android, Google launched its own Android phone, the Nexus One, that it will sell directly to customers via the Web, bypassing the wireless carriers.

Not that the carriers seem to mind-they’re all jumping on the Android train, too. Verizon, which blanketed the airwaves over the holidays with ads in support of the Android-based Motorola Droid, will provide service for the Nexus One next year. (At the moment, the phone works best on T-Mobile; you can get it for $179 with a two-year contract, or $529 without.) On Wednesday, AT&T also joined forces with Google. The carrier best known for hosting the iPhone announced that it would launch five Android devices in 2010. AT&T’s move means that every major mobile carrier in the United States now offers Android devices.

Which brings us to the question of the moment: Is Apple doomed to repeat its mistakes of bygone decades? More than a year ago, I wondered about just this scenario-Apple seemed to be putting itself in the same sorry position it was in back in the 1980s, when it began to lose the PC war to Microsoft. Android, too, appears to be reliving Windows’ early success: Just like Microsoft once did on the desktop, Google is pushing its OS to a wide range of portable hardware. The Google philosophy has a couple advantages. Over the long run, it will push down prices for Android phones-device manufacturers like Motorola and HTC don’t have to invest as much as Apple does in making an operating system; they get Android from Google for free and then compete with one another on price.

Google’s multidevice plan also sets up Android to attract lots of third-party apps. The more Android devices there are, the more the OS comes to seem like a universal mobile platform. For developers, the calculus goes like this: Make an app for Android and it’s instantly available on loads of devices on every carrier. Make an app for the iPhone and it works only on Apple hardware-the same sort of closed ecosystem that sank the Mac’s fortunes against Windows.

Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/most-popular/story.html?id=2421301#ixzz0cJ4HMxT3

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