There are a number of problems with the article, and this is one of them. Phone makers building products on top of Android _will_ be able to differenciate them

There are a number of problems with the article, and this is one of them. Phone makers building products on top of Android _will_ be able to differenciate themelves, to the extent that they want to, because the platform is extensible. It's dissimilar to an OEM licensing Windows - they can pick the bits that save them money, and throw away the rest.