Google Lets Android Speak For Itself At CES

Funny story, or at least funny to those who appreciate fine PR slipperiness.

A few weeks ago – before I landed in this godforsaken city in the desert for the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show – I approached Google to see if any of its executives would be appearing at the show.

I was told that no, not officially. Moreover, Google would not be making spokespeople available at the show for interviews. Google PR didn’t say Google wouldn’t have a force here, just that its executives and engineers wouldn’t be chatting with press.

I ran into a Google PR person during the Motorola mass launch here on 5 January and mentioned the same thing.

Why no Google? If Android is scheduled to get such a boost on tablets here at CES, why not show up in support? Android pic.png

She paused before answering; it was clear something was up, but she wouldn’t say what. It would come the next day in the form of a demo by Android developer Mike Cleron, who showed off the amazing Android 3.0 UI on the forthcoming Motorola Xoom tablet.

Google doesn’t need to push Android

It would hit me afterward in my late-night musings on all things Google that Google doesn’t have to be here to tout Android. That’s the beauty of creating a popular operating system.

You just throw it against the wall and see who buys in, then make the necessary additions and upgrades partners require. Care and feeding required later.

And Motorola and Samsung have bought in huge.

The Motorola Droid Bionic, powered by a dual-core processor, had me looking wistfully at my Droid X like it was an old dog that had to be put down.

The Motorola Atrix 4G, also dual-core fueled, boasted a super-cool docking effect to put the smartphone’s content on a web-top application powered by Firefox.

No wonder Apple is losing share.

It builds great smartphones, but it struggles to keep up with the innovation, Android’s procedural warts and idiosyncrasies aside.