The joy of multiple manufacturers of the Android phone is not just selection, it’s fault tolerance.

One company breaks a patent, the others keep on rolling. One company’s distribution deal falls through, the others keep on rolling. One company fails to be as awesome as Apple, the others keep on rolling.

I don’t own an Android phone. And I don’t want one (yet). But in a manner of only months, I now have the same number of friends with Android phones as I do friends with iPhones.

The difference: none of the people I know with an Android phone are fan-boys of anything. They saw a cool phone that they could get from their preferred provider, so they got it. The App(le)-niche goldmine has reached its peak, from here on, it is just over-saturation. From here on, it will be about UIs, multi-tasking nuances, and the number of buttons on (or the presence of) a slide-out keyboard.

That’s why I think Microsoft is doing a good job playing catch-up with their Windows Phone 7 platform. There will always be apps for everything, so make the experience better. (Of course, they still have room to screw up.)

Sometimes I just wish Gruber would just spontaneously combust.