www.eetimes.com/.../Android-gets-more-unity-USB-support
Android will support USB for the first time on the next version of its software for tablets, Honeycomb 3.1, and the smartphone version, Gingerbread 2.3.4. The support includes a new Open Accessory API which includes USB 2.0 support libraries from Google.
Android is unusual in that it is defined as a device, not a host environment under Linux. Thus Android USB accessories will technically be USB hosts. The Google libraries aim to smooth over that distinction for developers.
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So, this means, Google wants to create a new market of Android USB accessories, and this new market will be totally and completely owned by Google?
It seems that, users will not be allowed to use their existing USB devices on an Android machine?
This could be a massive own-goal for Google - could really tip the scales in Microsoft's favour...<p>
I'd rather believe that the original piece of news isn't entirely correct.
Google wants to market Android as an OS for everything (from cellphones to tablets to things like game consoles and even PCs), and equipping it with such a messed-up way of connecting USB devices would be, well, stupid. With a tablet or a PC, people will want to connect even more things (gamepads? cameras? printers?), and Googles support department probably can't be large enough to handle all the calls that x doesn't work, y doesn't work, z doesn't work ... ;)
I think you are right!
The article appears to be incorrect in stating that, "Android is unusual in that it is defined as a device, not a host".
In fact, it is only the "Accessory" mode in which Android is the Device - there is also a Host mode:
developer.android.com/.../accessory.html
developer.android.com/.../host.html