What's most interesting to me is that Google seems to be moving forward with a strategy of competing with iOS via services instead of just applications.
Services (like Conversation Mode translate, constantly updated turn by turn GPS driving directions, more deeply integrated Google Talks) give them leverage against the carriers, who have to meet Google guidelines for Android in order to include the flagship apps and represent a really high bar that Apple would have to overcome to compete.
I realize it isn't exactly as cut and dried as services vs applications, but it is certainly a strong move that plays to Google's strengths.
I suspect that mobile in general will move towards services instead of applications. There's a lot of data crunching that you can do when you have a data collection device in every person's pockets, but doing that crunching on the client will drain your batteries it to time. I predict that the really interesting mobile apps will have a thin (but native) client that only does data collection & UI, and then the most computationally interesting piece will be hosted in the cloud somewhere.
Services (like Conversation Mode translate, constantly updated turn by turn GPS driving directions, more deeply integrated Google Talks) give them leverage against the carriers, who have to meet Google guidelines for Android in order to include the flagship apps and represent a really high bar that Apple would have to overcome to compete.
I realize it isn't exactly as cut and dried as services vs applications, but it is certainly a strong move that plays to Google's strengths.