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?
From a technical self-interest point-of-view, it makes sense - it saves Google having to deal with the difficulties of supporting a USB Host stack, and the thorny issue of supplying power from a phone...
From any other point-of-view, it seems like complete madness!
For consumers, it means that they cannot hook up any of their current USB "accessories" to any Android device! So they are going to have to get a whole new set of accessories (or adaptors) - just for use with their Android device(s)!
As we see from frequent posts on this & similar forums, It's hard enough getting (supposedly) "technical" people to realise the USB Host/Device distinction - how on earth are Google going to explain it to consumers?!
For accessory developers, it will vastly increase the design complexity of the devices - as they will have to provide a USB *Host* stack.
Should be good business for the likes of http://www.vinculum.com though...!
"Google wants to create a new market of Android USB accessories, and this new market will be totally and completely owned by Google?"
It might actually be useful to people like "us" developing small microcontroller systems - if the "accessories" become Hosts, it means that "we" won't have to provide the Host stack...
"It seems that, users will not be allowed to use their existing USB devices on an Android machine?"
It's not a question of being "allowed" (cf. Apple) - it won't be possible!
The alternative is of course radio-based equipment.
There are lots of bluetooth keyboards, speakers, GPS receivers, ... and Wifi is also gaining market.
Alas, a too big movement to wireless devices does affect the customers options since wireless devices consumes more power and reduces the number of hours the mobile equipment can supply the service.
I wonder if we will see any significant move towards ZigBee and similar low-power, low-bandwidth technologies.