28 ms·

I have a suspicion that they went with the Amazon App Store because it removes the dependency on Google Play Services. Is that just me?

bilal4hmed 5y ago
I would say Microsoft needed an Android store and Amazon wanted another large customer base for theirs. I bet Google had no interest in obliging for either of them
- Mindwipe 5y ago
  And Amazon has a lot of versions of popular apps with their requirements for Google Play Services patched out as it doesn't appear on FireOS (without a bunch of work by the user).
babypuncher 5y ago
Google would never have wanted to put the Play Store on Windows because they actually compete with Windows. Access to the Play Store is a selling point of ChromeOS.
- chiefalchemist 5y ago
  Google is still very much an ads company. Play? Chrome OS? Those are for Hoovering data. They are effectively loss leaders. Put another way, Google doesn't need to sell hardware, or software. It needs sources for data.
paxys 5y ago
Why would Google even want the Play Store to be available on Microsoft PCs? Being able to run Android apps is a key differentiator for Chromebooks.
n8cpdx 5y ago
That’s certainly part of the advantage, but I always wonder about the geography here. Amazon and Microsoft are both headquartered in Seattle (technically Redmond for MS, but it’s only a short drive). I imagine there’s a lot of cross pollination going on. They’ve also made noises in the past about integrating Alexa and Cortana, and it’s quite easy to turn a PC into an always-on Alexa device. Everything that makes sense about the Amazon collaboration would make more sense if it was a Google-Microsoft collaboration, except the geography and cross-pollination aspects. Surface Duo has play services and no one bats an eye. That’s just my unfalsifiable hypothesis, and I’d like to hear other takes.

28 ms·

I have a suspicion that they went with the Amazon App Store because it removes the dependency on Google Play Services. Is that just me?

by open-paren 5y ago

bilal4hmed 5y ago
I would say Microsoft needed an Android store and Amazon wanted another large customer base for theirs. I bet Google had no interest in obliging for either of them
- Mindwipe 5y ago
  And Amazon has a lot of versions of popular apps with their requirements for Google Play Services patched out as it doesn't appear on FireOS (without a bunch of work by the user).
babypuncher 5y ago
Google would never have wanted to put the Play Store on Windows because they actually compete with Windows. Access to the Play Store is a selling point of ChromeOS.
- chiefalchemist 5y ago
  Google is still very much an ads company. Play? Chrome OS? Those are for Hoovering data. They are effectively loss leaders. Put another way, Google doesn't need to sell hardware, or software. It needs sources for data.
paxys 5y ago
Why would Google even want the Play Store to be available on Microsoft PCs? Being able to run Android apps is a key differentiator for Chromebooks.
n8cpdx 5y ago
That’s certainly part of the advantage, but I always wonder about the geography here. Amazon and Microsoft are both headquartered in Seattle (technically Redmond for MS, but it’s only a short drive). I imagine there’s a lot of cross pollination going on. They’ve also made noises in the past about integrating Alexa and Cortana, and it’s quite easy to turn a PC into an always-on Alexa device. Everything that makes sense about the Amazon collaboration would make more sense if it was a Google-Microsoft collaboration, except the geography and cross-pollination aspects. Surface Duo has play services and no one bats an eye. That’s just my unfalsifiable hypothesis, and I’d like to hear other takes.