Google is gearing up to do some interesting things in the world of Android, that's if what the Wall Street Journal is saying holds any merit. It is understood that Google is getting ready to cause carriers in the United States, Asia, and Europe a lot of pain and anguish with its plans to give as many as five OEMs early access to future new versions of Android, the devices that comes from this deal will be sold directly to consumers via Google's online store.

These future Google Nexus branded devices will be sold unlocked without any carrier bloatware, and all will have Android 5.0 Jellybean at the helm leading the charge. The new plan is expected to be officially announced at the Google I/O conference that will take place on June 27-29 2012 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

This move by Google appears to be designed to quell OEM fears of the company giving Motorola Mobility special preference when it comes to Android. What's good about this is no matter which OEM a Nexus branded Android device is coming from, the only difference will be in hardware, the software side of things will be the same. There are not many stock Android devices out there, and this move by Google, if true, could change that and also has the potential to fix Android's fragmentation problems if the devices are sold well.

There isn't a single good Android tablet apart from the Amazon Kindle Fire, and the Asus Transformer Prime, hence why Google plans to use this new initiative to propel interest in Android tablets. If it wants to do so, the company needs to have a direct hand-on approach to the hardware design and not just the software. Even if it means stealing a few ideas from Apple, Google needs to do something with Android's tablet problem before Windows 8 comes around, or else it will be next to impossible to get out of the rut.

When will these devices go on sale? Good question, young padre. WSJ claims Google is planning to have these devices on sale in time for Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

(reported by Vamien McKalin, edited by Dave Clark)