Google’s premier mobile operating system has often been touted as the open alternative to Apple’s iOS, Microsoft’s Windows Phone and RIM’s Blackberry OS. That could all be set to change with Google’s decision to delay Honeycomb (Android 3.0) from reaching developers for the “foreseeable future”. Instead what the company intends to do is to concentrate on the user experience and lock down some of the areas that developers can alter in the OS.

Obviously hardware makers and developers alike will be left pondering over when they will get their hands on the next major update to Android. This delay will inevitably put a dent in some of the plans manufacturers like Samsung and Motorola who will have had a strict delivery schedule for a number of tablet devices this coming year. In order to avoid what Google VP Andy Rubin calls “a really bad user experience”, Google has locked down much of the user interface portions of the system from the tampering of developers. This will inevitably leave many developers and consumers pondering whether Android can still be flying the mast for Open-Source operating systems. So why has Google done this?

Fragmentation. It all comes down to one simple concept. The strategy that quantity beats quality clearly doesn’t apply to every situation. The launch of the recent iPad 2 is barely a month old and the figures for the opening weekend alone was close to 1 million units sold. Take the sales figures for what’s pretty much been widely regarded as the most successful Android tablet to date, the Samsung Galaxy tab, and it took roughly two months after launch to hit it’s 1 millionth unit sold. Android’s newest flagship tablet, the Motorola Xoom, by best estimations looks set to only shift 300,000 units in it’s first quarter and as such is rumoured to be facing production cuts in the near future.

Of course you can’t expect a high end device to always sell but Apple has managed to do it time and time again. Whether you love or hate them, Apple’s vision of a singular design for both hardware and software is clearly paying dividends and right now the Cupertino giant is rolling in it’s proverbial success. The philosophy of a single OS spread out across all it’s devices is quickly becoming a reality as the line blurs between laptops and tablets.

Google on the other hand have a plethora of skins and UI differences between all it’s devices from Samsung’s Touchwiz interface to Motorola’s Motoblur skin which the company is realising is hurting much of it’s user experience. As much as the truth hurts, if Google is going to compete against the big Apple, it’s simply just going to have to close some doors.