Google's Android dev advocate gets stuck into Apple

Gloves off. Knuckledusters on. Attack. Google has hired Tim Bray as its developer advocate, seemingly with a specific responsibility for Android. He's a big name in tech circles, having been one of the people behind the XML web standard.
Anyway, he's announced his new job on his blog, with a list of reasons why he's excited about Android, praising its improving user experience, its developer-friendliness, and its open nature.
What does he think of Apple though? Well, he has a few views.
"The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It’s a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger. I hate it."
And furthermore:
"Apple apparently thinks you can have the benefits of the Internet while at the same time controlling what programs can be run and what parts of the stack can be accessed and what developers can say to each other. I think they’re wrong and see this job as a chance to help prove it."
As Bray makes clear in his blog post, these are his views, not the views of Google itself - although he admits that Google asked to see a draft of this particular post before publication, and didn't suggest any changes.
But the post does highlight the fact that the big battle between Apple and Google isn't about personal emnity between the companies' CEOs, or even particularly about patents and technology.
It's about openness. And specifically about whether mobile users are best served by a controlled environment or an entirely open ecosystem.
Google's hiring of Bray brings it a powerful and respected advocate of the latter approach. This battle just got even more interesting.

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