> Google kinda pulled a "bait-and-switch" with Android. > When they released it, it was pretty much 100% Open Source, then they moved more and more elements to

> Google kinda pulled a "bait-and-switch" with Android. > When they released it, it was pretty much 100% Open Source, then they moved more and more elements to their proprietary GApps suite, included the Play Services required to run even many 3rd party apps. I thought the reason they did this was because third party phone makers were controlling when/whether users could update the OS on their device. So users were often several Android releases behind, even on a phone that was only a year old. By moving a lot of the core functionality into apps, users could update these apps and have access to newer features even on older OS versions. Though, I guess that doesn't explain why the apps themselves aren't open source.