”Early this morning, Sony Ericsson took the wraps off of its first Android-based handset, the 1 GHz Snapdragon-powered Xperia X10. With a huge 4” touchscreen, an 8.1 megapixel camera and the elegant custom user interface named “Rachael,” Sony Ericsson moves the Android platform a step further by giving it almost no mention in announcements and commercials. […] This is where Android is headed, and it’s a good thing.

The new face of Android: No face | Wireless News - Tim Conneally, Betanews

I’m split between agreeing with Conneally and worrying that this new trend of branding Android could hurt the platform. On the one hand, he’s right: most people don’t care much about the name or version number of the OS powering their device. They just want it to work and, thanks to Apple’s App Store, have lots of extra games apps to download.

On the other hand, most carriers and handset makers failed spectacularly for years when trying to design their own OSes. This is why the industry is in its current state: Apple—a company that’s never made a phone before—gobbled the lion’s share of smartphone profits and mind share in less than two years, and Android—an OS spearheaded by a search and advertising company—is the industry’s next best hope.

I’m not saying that MotoBLUR and Rachael and similar Android mods don’t look interesting. In fact, they look to excel at one of Apple’s consistent weaknesses—embracing new web trends. But I’ve owned a lot of regular phones and smartphones, and I can’t remember a single OS, platform, or “experience” designed by a carrier or handset maker from the old school that was half as pleasant as the iPhone or even Palm’s webOS.