Google released Android a couple of days ago. Naturally it caused a lot of interest and lots of media space was used. But there's not really that much real information available. Maybe this will change after the SDK is release next week.
I see some problems with this platform. Google says that the platform will be open to all 3rd party developers and all internal applications will be changeable. This means that anyone can make software that will do anything. So where is security? Even though I really dislike Symbian's Platform Security, it still does something for security. At the moment the information that is available for Android doesn't say anything about this.
Also, how much of the system will be open source and can anyone rebuild the operating system? I would think that at least some drivers could (and should) be closed so that not anyone can change e.g. the functionality of the GSM stack. But we'll see when more information is available.
Who will give support if the user installs applications that alter the basic functionality and the phone won't work? How are the default applications restored? Can anyone change everything? Too many open questions.
I personally don't think this will be that big a deal, at least not in the near future. There are only a couple of device manufacturers in the Android camp at the moment and it all depends on the device price and that kind of things how the consumers will see it. The price of operating system license is so low when compared to the device prices today that it will not be a major factor in the market. Also the current systems (Windows Mobile, Symbian etc) are quite modifiable by the manufacturer, so that won't be a big factor either. But reliability, ease of development etc can be a factor.
So I won't be holding my breath, but I'll comment more after the SDK is released and more information is available.