I think as Android becomes more established as the standard smartphone OS, Google will be able to exert more influence on carriers and manufacturers by withholding the Google apps and Market when certain conditions are not met. I hope that Google uses this influence to encourage the production of devices that are easy to get software updates for, and lacking customizations that the user can't remove or turn off.
As for Java, it is my impression that most JVM languages can be used on Android, though dynamic languages suffer a bit on startup time. Scala seems like a good option here.
As for Java, it is my impression that most JVM languages can be used on Android, though dynamic languages suffer a bit on startup time. Scala seems like a good option here.