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>. The problem isn't the OS itself, it is the Play Store hegemony and the fact you cannot reasonably ship an Android phone without it - nobody would buy it. is

by wnevets 11y ago

>. The problem isn't the OS itself, it is the Play Store hegemony and the fact you cannot reasonably ship an Android phone without it - nobody would buy it. isn't this what amazon does?

pjc50 11y ago
And as a result they have terrible sales: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/26/amazon-fire-phone-sales-data https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/26/amazon-fi...
- wnevets 11y ago
  Is that really because of the amazon store? >There were many interesting anomalies in the launch of the Fire Phone. The $200 price tag for a 32GB version on an AT&T contract – the same price range as the iPhone 5S or Samsung GS5 Their tables are doing much better. http://www.geekwire.com/2016/50-fire-tablet-vaults-amazon-into-3rd-place-behind-only-apple-and-samsung-but-it-wont-last/ http://www.geekwire.com/2016/50-fire-tablet-vaults-amazon-in...
  - ocdtrekkie 11y ago
    Their tablets are primarily sold as e-Readers. The app store isn't a primary need, and they don't really directly compete with Android tablets, even though they're similar.
- takno 11y ago
  Amazon's android fork is desperately bad irrespective of their app store. If you aren't primarily using the device to consume Amazon content it is essentially useless
kyrra 11y ago
While the Fire Phone may not have done well, all the Amazon Fire products are Android based. This includes the Fire Phone, Fire Tablets, and Fire TV.
- scholia 11y ago
  > all the Amazon Fire products are Android based They are based on AOSP, but Amazon is expressly forbidden from using the Android name, and it can't use the Play store, so it's not really in the Android (TM) market.
  - wnevets 11y ago
    >but Amazon is expressly forbidden from using the Android name source?
    - scholia 11y ago
      While the documentation itself is available to you under the Apache 2.0 license, note that proprietary trademarks and brand features are not included in that license. Google's trademarks and other brand features (including the Android stylized typeface logo) are not included in the license. https://source.android.com/license.html https://source.android.com/license.html Android is a proprietary trademark wholly owned by Google. See also: Leverage over manufacturers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_%28operating_system%29#Leverage_over_manufacturers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_%28operating_system%29...
      - wnevets 11y ago
        maybe I'm dumb but I'm missing the part where Android is a proprietary trademark.
        cdibona 11y ago
        The term Android is not trademarked. Even the bugdroid is released under a cc-attrib license. Funnily, the term 'droid' is trademarked and licensed by lucasfilm/disney mostly.
        wnevets 11y ago
        I remember that being a thing when the droid phone was first launched.
dgacmu 11y ago
Xiaomi is a better example. They're doing surprisingly well -- wikipedia says 70.8m units sold in China, and they run their own app store. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaomi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaomi

by wnevets 11y ago

>. The problem isn't the OS itself, it is the Play Store hegemony and the fact you cannot reasonably ship an Android phone without it - nobody would buy it. isn't this what amazon does?

pjc50 11y ago

And as a result they have terrible sales: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/26/amazon-fire-phone-sales-data https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/26/amazon-fi...

wnevets 11y ago
Is that really because of the amazon store? >There were many interesting anomalies in the launch of the Fire Phone. The $200 price tag for a 32GB version on an AT&T contract – the same price range as the iPhone 5S or Samsung GS5 Their tables are doing much better. http://www.geekwire.com/2016/50-fire-tablet-vaults-amazon-into-3rd-place-behind-only-apple-and-samsung-but-it-wont-last/ http://www.geekwire.com/2016/50-fire-tablet-vaults-amazon-in...
- ocdtrekkie 11y ago
  Their tablets are primarily sold as e-Readers. The app store isn't a primary need, and they don't really directly compete with Android tablets, even though they're similar.
takno 11y ago
Amazon's android fork is desperately bad irrespective of their app store. If you aren't primarily using the device to consume Amazon content it is essentially useless

kyrra 11y ago

While the Fire Phone may not have done well, all the Amazon Fire products are Android based. This includes the Fire Phone, Fire Tablets, and Fire TV.

scholia 11y ago
> all the Amazon Fire products are Android based They are based on AOSP, but Amazon is expressly forbidden from using the Android name, and it can't use the Play store, so it's not really in the Android (TM) market.
- wnevets 11y ago
  >but Amazon is expressly forbidden from using the Android name source?
  - scholia 11y ago
    While the documentation itself is available to you under the Apache 2.0 license, note that proprietary trademarks and brand features are not included in that license. Google's trademarks and other brand features (including the Android stylized typeface logo) are not included in the license. https://source.android.com/license.html https://source.android.com/license.html Android is a proprietary trademark wholly owned by Google. See also: Leverage over manufacturers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_%28operating_system%29#Leverage_over_manufacturers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_%28operating_system%29...
    - wnevets 11y ago
      maybe I'm dumb but I'm missing the part where Android is a proprietary trademark.
      - cdibona 11y ago
        The term Android is not trademarked. Even the bugdroid is released under a cc-attrib license. Funnily, the term 'droid' is trademarked and licensed by lucasfilm/disney mostly.
        wnevets 11y ago
        I remember that being a thing when the droid phone was first launched.

dgacmu 11y ago

Xiaomi is a better example. They're doing surprisingly well -- wikipedia says 70.8m units sold in China, and they run their own app store. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaomi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaomi