One of traditional strengths of Android has been that it is more \"open\" (for some definition of open) than iOS. And while I definitely prefer operating systems that are open source, and allow me to install any application that I deem fit, I'm starting to wonder if Google intends to close the Android source code.

Typically, Google develops Android behind closed doors, and drops a source code release in the open, once a new version of Android ships. However, with the Android 3.0 \"Honeycomb\" release back in March, Google declined to release the source code. At the time, Google claimed that the code wasn't fit for public consumption, and that they would resume source code releases with subsequent versions.

But what if there was another reason? I believe (along with the rest of the Internet), that Amazon is going to do an Android-based tablet this year. However, Amazon's Android tablet is probably going to be a fork of Android — Amazon probably started with the source of a specific Android release, and then tailored it to suit their purposes. Thus, the Amazon Android tablet may not have any Google services on it whatsoever.

Furthermore, there have been rumors that Facebook is working on their own fork of Android, in order to release a \"Facebook phone\". And now that Google has bought Motorola, what if some of the larger OEMs, such as Samsung and HTC, decide to fork Android in order to try and gain a competitive advantage?

If this competitive forking of Android takes hold, then Google could be in a position where all of it's hard work on Android gets taken by their competitors, and used in products that directly compete with Google's revenue stream for Android. Thus, would actually make sense for Google to halt public releases of the Android source code. This might offer a second explanation for the lack of Honeycomb source code — maybe Google got wind of what Amazon was up to, and decided to try and stall their efforts by not making the Honeycomb source public?

All of this is pure speculation on my part, and we'll learn the definitive fate of Android's openness when the next release, Ice Cream Sandwich, comes out later this year. But if Google doesn't release the source to the next version of Android, then Google's version of Android may go closed source. And if this does come to pass, then you heard it here first.

-Andy.