Following Google's purchase of smartphone and tablet maker Motorola Mobility this past August, there was worry that the company would make its popular Android operating system closed-source. Those fears were put to rest today in a letter from Google CEO Larry Page.

"Android was built as an open ecosystem, and we have no plans to change that," he wrote in the 2012 CEO update. 

Its open nature has contributed to Android's success, Page wrote, continuing that the company looks forward to continuing to work with the many hardware makers that use the Android platform.

—Jamie Hartford