While rumor about Google’s plans for the FCC spectrum auction in January abound, developers are busy burying themselves in the Android SDK and exploring the limits of the platform’s flexibility.  It’s looking like a complete paradigm change from the established mainstream cellphone market, by virtue of a combination of highly precise options and the Open Handset Alliance’s high profile membership.  Customisation will settle at a number of different levels: David Somner, director of software development for BlueKey Wireless Systems, envisages a model where users can readily alter the software appearance of an Android phone in a way previously open only to initial manufacturers and carriers applying corporate branding.

“I can easily foresee several thousand programs being developed just for changing the look, feel and layout of the screen, customizing the fonts that people use, using custom images and sounds for everything.  In the end, every user’s handset can be totally customized just for that one user with no restrictions” David Somner, BlueKey Wireless Systems

Meanwhile, analyst John Jackson of the Yankee Group is focusing on handset design flexibility [pdf link], namely the degree to which features supported by the pre-installed API can be branded, modified and even omitted by manufacturers in order to differentiate their product line. 

““Open” is an invariably subjective term. Symbian and Microsoft can claim a degree of openness for their mobile platforms, for example, but ultimate control of API access and source code remains with a single entity. On the contrary, as Google has pointed out, there’s nothing keeping any of the alliance members from using Android to build a Yahoo! Go phone” John Jackson, VP, Yankee Group

 It’s that dual level of customisation that could be a major factor in Android adoption by consumers.  The proliferation of personal websites, social networking and blogging has demonstrated that independence and uniqueness are powerful draws, and the possibility of a cellphone - already one of the most commonly carried devices - that could be similarly fettled until individually-distinguished is likely to tap into those same desires.  Moreover, a dual level software ecosystem can evolve, providing not only third-party applications but the facilitation to carry out your own customisation.

“The difference, we hope, is that users will no longer be tied down by the carriers locking down handset features, and moving away from requiring signed applications of any kind, giving developers full range to truly develop any application they want, and giving users the real choice of being unlimited with what they can install and use on their cell phones” David Somner