AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega said about Android in April – that he wants to customize Android devices so they no longer look like Google phones.

“We in fact will be able to take the Android open-source code and put our own apps and features on an Android device,” he said. “They’re going to open it up and allow us to be able to customize what an Android device looks like to our customers.”

AT&T’s Android Phone Might Not Be a Google Phone – Gearlog

Uhhhhhh….that hit me as something rather clueless to say.  IOW,  Android IS an open system.  You CAN already customize it to look how you want. 

The writer of the article said as much :

As I said back in 2007, Android isn’t an end-to-end open mobile experience; it’s an OS that carriers and manufacturers are free to alter or lock down however they like. Perhaps a conflict between carriers, manufacturers and Google is one of the things that has held up the release of more Android phones

Okay,  I’m already on the warpath about this stuff at the very beginning of my search for an AT&T Android phone.  Is AT&T going to now start moving in the direction they were before they landed the insanely lucrative iPhone deal?  That is,  being the service that no well connected person wants to be because of a lack of features for the “developer” inclined?  Not only am I developer,  I am very much in with the Open Source idea.  And I still harbor a grudge against AT&T and Apple for being “out of stock” at the store when I was all ready to make the plunge and get an iPhone back in the summer of 08.  That unavailability gave me time to reconsider and hold out once again.  Now I’m on board with Android.  Now am I back to being limited by my carrier (AT&T)?

I’m still looking.  But past disparaging remarks about Android from AT&T spokespersons has me looking with not a lot of confidence.