Now this is amazing news for Android's future.

[rockymtnhigh]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/29/exclusive-android-froyo-to-take-a-serious-shot-at-stemming-plat/

Forget waiting for Verizon or Moto or HTC to push an update, according to Engadget, Google wants to decouple core applications from the OS. So when a new google browser comes out, you just grab it in the marketplace, just like you do with google maps.

. We've been given reason to believe that the company will start by decoupling many of Android's standard applications and components from the platform's core and making them downloadable and updatable through the Market, much the same as they've already done with Maps. In all likelihood, this process will take place over two major Android versions, starting with Froyo and continuing through Gingerbread. Notice that we said apps and components, meaning that some core elements of Android -- input methods, for instance -- should get this treatment. This way, just because Google rolls out an awesome new browser doesn't mean you need to wait for HTC, Samsung, or whomever made your phone to roll it into a firmware update, and for your carrier to approve it -- almost all of the juicy user-facing stuff will happen through the Market.

Of course, we'll still have to wait for those versions to get pushed by the vendors! to star the ball running

 

[meStevo]

Yeah, bad news in all of this is that this could be like droid v2.5 or something that we may never see on current devices, or the baseline for this app-iterative OS could be devices that aren't out yet.

Will be happy to be wrong, and won't even be disappointed when I am (I don't see why the phones I use for the next decade aren't all droids with the direction it's going), but am not getting my hopes up about my Moto Droid and enjoying it for what it is.

 

[Hall]

Maybe Google is seeing how slow the carriers are with updates and want to do something about it.

 

[Ramy]

This is good news. I am tired of waiting for the new OS version.

 

[Concepticon]

This will definately help with the decentralization of how Android is right now. For large companies to really want to embrace the platform, it needs to be based on 1 version. That's the only way that they will know for sure that their games will work across all platforms.