You have to read the Google post in its entirety and the context; in this case, the Engadget article was about the different business models of Amazon/Google as compared to Apple, and how they hope to profit not from the hardware but from complementary services. Thus the implicit meaning is that Android is "open", which we all know not to be true.

Getting "carrier lock-in" is more symptomatic of American carriers' way of doing business rather than a universal once, since, as pointed out by many others, Apple sells unlocked iOS devices in many parts of the world.