But his post explaining his distaste for Android is probably the most cogent argument so far why the platform is falling so far short of its potential.

Android was built on a foundation of good intentions. The platform was supposed to usher in a new mobile era where the power was given to the user to make their device their own. No walled gardens, no censorship, no limits. Supporters of the platform heralded its “openness,” deriding Apple and others for their top-town controlled approach.

It sounded too good to be true, and it pretty much was. Carriers balked at giving up that control and quickly Android became just as tightly controlled as iOS or any other mobile platform. And this is directly a result of Google’s business decisions in the company’s quest for Android market domination.

Siegler points out Google’s deal with Verizon in 2009 for Android, which really was the beginning of the end. Let’s just refresh everybody’s memory here on Verizon’s own strategies. This is the same wireless company that up until a few years ago replaced phone manufacturers’ own operating systems with its own really lousy (and buggy) user interface, which often meant the same phone on another network acted completely differently — and was less functional — on Verizon. The most “open” mobile platform joined forces with one of the most closed mobile providers in the world.

What did you think would happen? Of course something had to give, and it ended up being Android users’ freedom. I found it comical how many of my Android-loving friend’s tunes changed around this time. The same ones who had been arguing until they were blue in the face how much better Android was because of its openness were now telling me that the platform was never open to begin with!

How can you equate those two positions? You can’t. Google folded on Android because it didn’t have the gravitas to stand up to the carriers.

Since then, Google has shrunk into the background, allowing the carriers to set the ground rules rather than sticking to its guns on behalf of users, many of who came to Android because of its so-called openness. These days, the platform is a shell of what it once was — a lot of promise, but often not living up to the hype.

You can’t have openness when it’s convenient: you’re either open or you’re not. Android these days is far from it. I’m willing to bet most users don’t even know how much is locked down in the operating system just because they don’t know any better. That’s pretty sad.

I know many readers here on Technologizer do: I’ve read some of your comments on here, many complaining of the various carriers shutting you out of a particular feature, or being slow as molasses in delivering an update.

Siegler is right in saying Apple has held a consistent position in dictating terms, which has in turn resulted in a uniform experience no matter what carrier you’re on. There is not one feature of your iPhone that is locked down, Apple will have none of that.

Google does need to stop talking out of both sides of its mouth. Either it should open up Android as intended, or end the marketing gimmick of “openness.”

The general consensus is that the Streak 5 was too big to be a good phone and too small to be a good tablet, but I’m not convinced of that argument. Phone makers have successfully made 4.3-inch screens desirable, and are now pushing toward 4.5 inches with the Samsung Infuse 4G and rumored HTC Holiday. And whenever I write about 7-inch tablets, I’m shocked by the number of commenters who want to use them as phones. I think there’s a niche for oversized handsets. Dell just failed to capture it. In hindsight, it’s easy to see why.

No clear identity: Although Dell called the Streak a tablet, AT&T treated it like a phone, requiring two years of voice and data service to get the Streak’s subsidized $300 price tag. Best Buy also buried the Streak among its smartphones. Dell and its partners needed a clearer marketing message to sell the Streak 5 to the masses.

A messy launch: As I wrote for PC World more than a year ago, mixed messages marred the Streak 5′s launch. The unlocked price was $50 higher than Dell had originally announced, the launch date was repeatedly pushed back, and the voice plan requirement came out of nowhere. Dell also waited until the last minute to debunk rumors that the Streak would be available on T-Mobile, angering a subsection of users who were waiting to buy the device on their carrier of choice.

Moldy Android: The Streak 5 launched with Android 1.6 at a time when most phones were getting Android 2.1 or higher, resulting in a sluggish interface compared to newer devices. An upgrade to Android 2.2 didn’t land until November of last year.

Dell has since launched a 7-inch Streak worldwide and a 10-inch Streak in China only, but in a market flooded with Android tablets in those sizes, the 5-inch Streak was the most unique in Dell’s portfolio. It’s a shame the company couldn’t make it work.

For the first time, Android has surpassed Symbian in terms of units sold in the first quarter of 2010, making up 36 percent of the market. That is a four-fold increase from the same quarter last year, when it only made up nine percent of all devices sold. Much of Android’s gain came at the expense of Symbian, which fell from 44.2 percent a year ago to 27.4 percent.

As has been typical, iOS has treaded water, up slightly to 16.8 percent of the market, and RIM fell about seven points to 12.9 percent of the market in the first quarter. Microsoft also fell, making up 3.6 percent of the market after a 6.8 percent share in the year ago quarter.

So, what can we gather from these results? Without a doubt, Android is quickly becoming the platform of choice for many smartphone buyers. iOS continues to appeal to its target group, but seems to be having some trouble getting much traction elsewhere; and RIM still can’t seem to right its ship. This is quickly becoming a two-horse race between Apple and Google, and currently Google’s got all most of the marbles.

Microsoft? Might as well forget it. A measly 1.6 million Windows Phone devices were sold worldwide in the first quarter — only about 1.6 percent of the entire smartphone market. The only hope it has is the Nokia partnership.

Will those Symbian users stay brand loyal and switch to Windows Phone along with the company? I guess we’ll find out, but if these results are any indication they’re already moving to Android.

[Image from UnwiredView]

Sideloading, as it’s known in tech jargon, has been absent from all AT&T Android phones to date. Prohibiting non-Market apps “minimizes the risk of malicious apps harming customers and provides more protection to the customer’s private data stored on the phone,” AT&T explained last June.

Although AT&T hasn’t announced any policy changes, several bloggers who attended the Infuse 4G announcement on Thursday confirmed the “unknown sources” option in the phone’s settings. Users must check this box to allow non-Market apps on their phones. Samsung’s Philip Berne said his retail boxed Infuse 4G also contains the “unknown sources” option.

Sideloading has plenty of legitimate uses, like the Amazon Appstore and demo apps from developers, but it also allows users to install unauthorized tethering apps, which AT&T and Verizon are now blocking through the Android Market. Perhaps AT&T is confident enough in its ability to detect illicit tethering on its own.

I also wonder if AT&T’s proposed T-Mobile acquisition played a role. T-Mobile never restricted app sources, and the difference in policy could be a sticking point for federal regulators. Now, AT&T can say that it’s being open.

Whatever the reason, I’m hoping sideloading on the Infuse 4G isn’t a one-time deal. Most users aren’t even going to bother with non-Market apps, and for everyone else, it’s much better for AT&T to let them have some freedom instead of forcing them to root their phones. With any luck, AT&T will enable sideloading on older phones as well, but given the time it can take for carriers and phone makers to update their handsets, I’m not holding my breath.

Says Asia-Pacific president Daniel Alegre to AdNews:

“Whenever iPhone succeeds, Google succeeds. I actually don’t look at it as iPhone versus Android. iPhone is a very strong driver of query growth for Google. We also monetise apps through the iPhone..we actually benefit from iPhone’s growth.”

Makes sense. In total the iOS ecosystem is getting increasingly larger, and if you group the iPad and iPhone together, is more than holding its own against the Android platform. Simply put, pissing off Apple is not in Google’s best interest no matter how much they’d like to see their mobile OS be #1.

Google has said previously that the iPhone has been a key driver of growth in its mobile search efforts. So it shouldn’t be surprising that at least publicly executives like Alegre are making such statements. Then again, if all those iPhone users pick up a Droid — the only other really dominant mobile platform — is Google really losing anyway?

According to the comany’s data, 61 percent of the stores said they were selling equal numbers of both devices, and 11 percent more iPhones than Thunderbolts, apparently mainly in the southeastern US. But 28 percent were selling more Thunderbolts, seemingly indicating that at least on Verizon, the iPhone may have met its match.

Part of me wants to say I’m shocked by this, then again I’m really not. The Thunderbolt is a nice device, and well, it’s brand new. The iPhone 4 isn’t, except for being a CDMA version. Add to this that some people are waiting for the next iPhone–whenever it may arrive–and that hurts sales too.

Apple brought the iPhone 4 to Verizon in February. However the lack of lines led to kneejerk analysis of failure by some tech pundits, even though it was later disclosed the phone had sold some one million units in the first weeks of launch.

We can’t really be sure whether this has to do with the now-aging device or consumer apathy since Apple has yet to release a new device on both networks simultaneously, but BITG’s study results are sure to stoke the fire.

In a blog post, Greg Peters of Netflix product development explained that the company really wants to launch on Android devices. “The hurdle,” he said, “has been the lack of a generic and complete platform security and content protection mechanism available for Android.”

In other words, Hollywood doesn’t like the way Android does DRM, and Netflix is powerless without Hollywood’s go-ahead. On the bright side, Netflix will work with individual handset makers to satisfy Hollywood’s needs, so while you won’t see a Netflix Android app any time soon, certain Android phones — and tablets, one hopes — will get their own Instant Watch video players early next year.

I sense a bit of politics at work here.

Peters only described Hollywood’s issue with Android in vague terms. “The same security issues that have led to piracy concerns on the Android platform have made it difficult for us to secure a common Digital Rights Management (DRM) system on these devices,” he wrote. Is this a reference to app piracy issues? To the hacking of streaming video apps like NFL Mobile? Hard to say without specifics.

Even though we don’t know what the problem is, exactly, the news puts pressure on Google to do something, lest there be more of the “f” word that has dogged Android in the eyes of tech watchers. “Unfortunately, [working with phone makers] is a much slower approach and leads to a fragmented experience on Android, in which some handsets will have access to Netflix and others won’t,” Peters wrote. “This clearly is not the preferred solution, and we regret the confusion it might create for consumers.”

It’s fun to imagine that quote as a scene out of a mob movie. Google’s the leading mayoral candidate in a corrupt town. Netflix and Hollywood studios are the gangsters. Gee, Google, without DRM, the only way we can support you is by slicing up the platform among select phone makers. What’s the word? Oh yes, “fragmentation.” You wouldn’t want to see more of that, now would you, Google?

What they don’t show you in mob movies are all the everyday people who suffer.

The Defy launches on T-Mobile later this year, and sports a 3.7-inch scratch-resistant touchscreen, Android 2.1, Motorola’s BLUR interface, five-megapixel camera, and a “rugged” exterior shell. This extra rigidity keeps out dust and water better than other smartphones, Motorola claims.

Motorola also will include noise-canceling technology on the device as well as Adobe’s Flash Lite, a feature that seems to have become ever more popular on recently released Android phones as of late. T-Mobile’s product management chief Paul Cole is calling it “a connection hub wrapped in a layer of protection.”

Another interest feature is built-in DLNA support. DLNA allows electronics to share content between devices supporting the technology. A cool feature, but it obviously requires other DLNA-equipped devices in order to truly be useful.

Pricing has not been announced — that will be part of the Oprah debut. So I guess you have to tune in and find out if you’re interested in the Defy. Now I guess it *might* make a little sense?

On Sunday night, Amazon began embedding audio and/or video in a handful of Kindle e-books for the iPhone and iPad. On Monday, it released a Kindle e-reader for Android phones–and it can’t play those sounds and movies. As with other first incarnations of Kindle apps, it gets the job done but feels a bit bare bones: For instance, if you tap on your phone’s Search button while you’re reading a book, you get a message saying that search is coming soon.

This is still good news for Android handset owners–especially ones who (like me) have already invested in Kindle e-books. It also cements Kindle’s position as the most widely-deployed of the e-reading apps associated with a major book merchant: You can read Kindle books on Amazon’s devices, PCs, Macs, iPhones (and iPod Touches), iPads, BlackBerries, and now Android phones. ePub, championed by Barnes & Noble, Sony, and others is more theoretically open, but it’s kind of moot so long as everyone wraps their e-books up in copy protection and Amazon’s books work with the widest variety of hardware.