Andy Rubin Discusses Android On Google Campus

When you're the vice president of any department at a company like Google, you're probably expected to speak to the rest of the employees every once in awhile. For Andy Rubin, Vice President of Engineering at Google, it seems that one of his instances was last week, as he spoke at the Google Campus, and covered just about every facet of Android's existence that you could think of.

Rubin wanted to point out that Android's success comes in the fact that their software, the very platform, is open. This allowed for many different manufacturers to make an experience all their own, and allows for Android to spread over the planet at a quickened pace. He concedes that it is a number's game, and that having multiple OEMs building multiple projects at once, means that it's basically inevitable before they surpass that of proprietary systems. You know the ones: Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices, and most notoriously, Apple's iPhone. When he was asked when Android might surpass those other platforms, Rubin couldn't give an exact time frame, just that he was confident it would happen. He wholeheartedly believes that open will win the race.

Also noteworthy, is the fact that Rubin seemed to compare Apple to a totalitarian country. When he was asked whether customers would ultimately care in the long run that their phone software is open, he said that they would, and then subsequently said that closed computing platforms are the same as totalitarian governments, which deprive their customers the freedom of choice.

And, just as we've heard in the past, Rubin and his team at Android are fully supportive of Flash Player. Additionally, he also confirmed that Froyo is indeed going to support Flash to its full extent. Also, Rubin said that Google did not have a priority Operating System when it comes to tablets. Basically, Rubin believes that if a customer has a choice between Chrome and Android, he's simply happy that they have a choice between the two, and not that they may pick Chrome over Android. In the end, it's still a Google product.

[via The New York Times]