Probably one of Android's biggest issues is the fact that the carriers keep messing with the phone - slowing it down, installing crapware, making unnecessary UI changes, etc. For example, any given Verizon Android phone has a bunch of crap apps that I can't remove or move to the SD card despite the fact that they are the primary reason that I am running out of space on the flash memory. And they completely reskinned the Droid 2's UI, and it looks ugly.
If the carriers would ship their phones with stock, performance-optimized Android software, people wouldn't have so many complaints about Android. No one buys "Visual Voice Mail" or "ThinkFree Office," and all it's doing is ticking people off.
However, at this point I have given up on finding motivations for the actions of Verizon and AT&T, and have concluded that they are just evil.
My take is that the carriers know that differentiation is crucial to keeping a loyal customer base. And since they are having a hard time adding value, they're trying to differentiate by removing value.
If the carriers would ship their phones with stock, performance-optimized Android software, people wouldn't have so many complaints about Android. No one buys "Visual Voice Mail" or "ThinkFree Office," and all it's doing is ticking people off.
However, at this point I have given up on finding motivations for the actions of Verizon and AT&T, and have concluded that they are just evil.