I wonder how long it'll be until google decides open source means, "we're just going to let our hardware partners look at it."

At least in that case, the company simply isn't talking to anyone outside the hardware partners it needs to work with.

Right now its cheaper for them to simply copy and pay out legal settlements(or leave those to their hardware partners as the case may be).

Such a move would be a dramatic shift for Microsoft, which has shied away from competing directly with its hardware partners.

They'll string their hardware partners along until they do have something credible.

Certainly, much of this has already happened, with Google's hardware partners bearing most of the burden.

Google won't sit idly by while its hardware partners are sued by Apple, either.

The company says that it has been discussing the plan with hardware partners for the past 18 months.

Napster's name has been bought by another company that has launched a pay service with a hardware partner, Samsung.

It might work out well for Microsoft-it gives the software company a strong hardware partner with substantial international reach.