Google Inc (GOOG): Pure Android HTC Phone Will Be Hard To Come By

This could very well be just an experiment for Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) as it shops its vanilla, stock Android OS in the marketplace to gauge its success. There are not many smartphones that don’t have their own native UI build over the top of the OS, so this could well be a risk for Google to determine if its Android OS works well enough to sell on its own as an OS to compete with iOS, or whether it may have to remain in the background behind whatever native UI the handset will install.

If this ends up failing, Google could lose market share, so it might make sense to keep the supply of Google Edition phones to a relative few until users can give feedback and help the company assess its future in the smartphone market.

DISCLOSURE: None