Now that Android phones are gaining momentum in the mobile marketplace, people are starting to get a better idea of what it would be like to have a truly “open” phone OS.  The results are not always proving favorable.

It’s like the saying goes, with freedom comes responsibility.  Do you trust all Android app developers to be responsible with your information?  To create a stable app?  To not break the law?  Why should you, the user, have to worry about all of that?  I know I don’t want to have to dig into reviews of every app I install just to make sure it won’t crash my phone or steal my data.  Are you OK with Google having complete access to your phone anytime they want it?

Flash on a phone?  You can have it, I don’t want it.  I’d like my phone to last more than 30 mins on one charge, and not crash my browser almost every time I want to watch a video.  Apple found a better way to deliver mobile video content.  Sorry Adobe.

Apple’s App Store takes all of that burden off of your shoulders, with some pitfalls.  No, you can’t have any app you want.  Yes, sometimes Apple’s a bit trigger happy in killing App Store submissions.  That sacrifice is met with a great user experience in terms of stability, performance, legality, and better security.

The basic gist of it is, nobody wants to be censored or told what they can or can’t do.  However, anytime you take a large community and give them free reign with no rules (android devs), chaos always ensues.  That is true on so many levels of humanity, and holds true here.  I think that Android’s biggest problem is that they focus on whether or not they can, instead of whether or not they should.  Once Google realizes this, I will not be surprised to see how similar Android’s marketplace will be to Apple’s App Store.