According to T-Mobile Chief Technology and Innovation Officer Cole Brodman, who spoke to Om onstage at our Mobilize 09 conference on Thursday, that’s because Android is the first platform that has lived up to the expectation of an open platform for the industry, one that brings together carriers, cell phone manufacturers and third-party developers. “I don’t see any other platform that is approaching it in the same way,” said Brodman.

Phone companies need to move away from the closed telco mind-set and more towards open, web-based infrastructure, said Brodman. The problem with the traditional closed telco model is that it takes way too long to get innovations to market, said Brodman, adding that, “I love the innovations I’m seeing on the Android platform.” The Android ecosystem is nearing 10,000 applications, he pointed out.