Google has been iterating Android at an astounding pace since it was first introduced in the fall of 2008. Barely a few months have passed in between releases, and now much of the feature set has been fleshed out. Ask most people familiar with the operating system what's still missing, and they'll probably say the user experience needs work. Google has apparently gotten the message, because sources within the Android team are saying the upcoming Gingerbread release will focus on improving the user interface.
The overall polish of the operating system has been a sore spot for the open source software. Apple's iPhone OS is much more tightly controlled, but more cohesive experience. Various third parties have tried to build skins for Android to clean up some of the rough edges. The most obvious example of this is HTC's Sense UI. Google may not be looking to squash these ventures, but maybe make them less necessary.
It's hard to build a really slick user interface when you have so many different devices floating around. But Google's recent hiring of Palm UI engineer Matias Duarte could be a sign the search giant is serious. We're looking forward to trying some tasty Gingerbread, but we haven't even had our Froyo (Android 2.2) yet.
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