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?
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.