The latest version of Android (Froyo) supports JIT.
Not sure I agree with the "They suck at UI" comment. Most of the rest of the Android UI is really well designed. The Market Place app needs improvement though yes.
Thanks, I'm surprised it wasn't in the first version.
I bet that UI came with the the Android acquisition. Though gmail is very good. All of their other good examples of UI's that I can think of also come from acquisitions: it's an opportunity. Google is great at engineering.
The UI has improved dramatically since the first Android phone came out, ie post-aquisition. I'm assuming the people responsible for the Market Place app are the same people responsible for the general UI but I could be wrong.
I think the next release will be the big major release android finally needed. Android 2.2 offered the JIT (which really is a HUGE difference!) and overall i think that Android is pretty much feature complete. Apart from the UI which lacks behind the polish of the iPhone. Development of Android 3.0 concentrates on the UI, Google even aquired some UI designer of WebOS (which is said to have a really nice UI). Also, i think Android 3.0 focuses on UI scalability in general, which might mean that we will see this UI in most phones/tablets/TVs/whatever in the mid-term, fighting the fragmentation :)
Not sure I agree with the "They suck at UI" comment. Most of the rest of the Android UI is really well designed. The Market Place app needs improvement though yes.