Issuing press releases and releasing beta code was the easy part. Actually delivering products and sorting out the power relationships in a new, more “open” mobile universe – that’s hard.

That’s the (unsurprising) verdict several months after seemingly the entire mobile universe -- via Google’s Android announcement to AT&T and Verizon battling over open network semantics to the 700 MHz open access requirements -- declared its desire to “open up.”

As an example, Google recently showed both some progress and setbacks on its road to Android, holding developer days in London, Munich and Tel Aviv (with a Boston day coming soon). The events let developers get a good look at how to code Android; but feedback also led to Google pushing back a key update of its Android SDK, in the process delaying the deadlines for its “million-dollar” developer challenge. “We've made significant updates to the SDK that we'll be releasing in several weeks,” said Quang Nguyen, Developer Advocate. Do “significant updates” mean the platform is improving, or was it released prematurely? And will it cause delays in the availability of Android-powered phones? It’s hard to find fault with a couple-week delay in a project this size, but it’s cause for concern.

For its part, Verizon Wireless announced its developer conference for later this month. We checked in with a Verizon spokesperson to get some details, but were told the event planners “had their heads down” putting the conference together. It will be interesting to see what comes from the event -- it should be the first look at the device approval terms for open phones on the Verizon network, which will likely determine the project’s ultimate success or failure.

Perhaps the most intriguing development on the open mobile front has been the sudden onslaught of “high-fidelity” mobile browsers. New browser releases and updates from Apple, Skyfire, Mozilla, Opera, Bytemobile and others are delivering an entirely new mobile browsing experience. Gone – or at least pushed to the side – are the days of browsing the Web from your phone in a single text column, sans images. These new browsers deliver Web pages in all their glory – Flash, video and Ajax included – and let users pan-scan-and-zoom into and out of the details.

These new, more open mobile browsers not only impact the user experience, but operator business models as well. Will content-viewing shift from the on-deck portal to the open Web browser? Will phone users viewing full Web pages – already filled with ads – be happy if an operator slides in even more ads on the browser “chrome,” as a pre-load or during idle time?

That might be the biggest open question about the open Web: are the desktop and mobile Webs one in the same, or something different? Does one plus one equal two, or something less?

“Open mobile” business models depend on the answer to that question.