Many of my friends, family, clients, and colleagues knew I was a stark defender of all things Blackberry. Due to RIM’s inability to keep up with the times and their underwhelming smartphone offerings through Sprint, I did the unthinkable. I picked up an Android phone without a keyboard (gasp!). I went with a completely touch based phone and I fell in love.

This is a huge contrast to my previous anti-touch phone stance and loathing of all things iPhone. What did Google Android offer me over what Apple and their iPhone couldn’t? Freedom. The freedom of open software and the dictation of what I can and cannot do with my phone.

Far forward to the present and my allegiance is now with Google and Android. While I know Google isn’t perfect (especially when they made a deal with Verizon in regards to Net Neutrality), they are not trying to force me to stick within their confines. If I want to use the Google Market, I can. I can also, directly download and install, apps without it (yeah, yeah, at my own risk). Try doing that on your iPhone without it being jailbroken (that word really fits Apple’s grasp of their customer’s phones).

Android is now powering millions of phones, from entry level to the high end smartphones and Apple has the nerve to call Google’s next conquest, “bizarre”. On January, 18^th, Apple’s COO Tim Cook called current Android tablets bizarre and labeled the up and coming Android tablets as “vapor”. More so, Mr. Cook liken Android tablets to oversized smartphones. These comments come from a company that released a “revolutionary” tablet in the iPad. Which itself is nothing more than a bigger iPod Touch. Someone needs to stop calling the kettle black.

I cannot predict the future. Will the Android tablets take over the Tablet market as the Android smartphone did to the cellular phone industry? Time will only tell. What I will say is that there is no other company outside of Google, in the position to challenge Apple in the tablet market. Apple has the right to pop shots at Google but don’t rest too much on those laurels Apple or you’ll once again see Google take first.