The iPhone was not only a revolution in hardware and experience, the concept of regular software updates that made the phone significantly faster and better was

The iPhone was not only a revolution in hardware and experience, the concept of regular software updates that made the phone significantly faster and better was a great feat too. But there's no reason this should only happen every year. Google is a capable dev house and far less cautious releasing new software. We all like google and the web and open source because it allows extremely fast and transparent iterative updates. I don't think google will or should slow down improving android. I'd hope the hardware manufacturers experiment with shipping their own vanilla android devices and learn exactly what customers and the market flock to. Don't forget a Moto Droid is still a badass phone despite what iPhone 4 or froyo offer. If you want the cutting edge you can install hacked firmware. Or buy a nexus one. Or wait until your carrier will help subsidize a whole new phone just like we've always done. There's no problem here as a consumer or for google as a os vendor.