6 ms·

If Amazon are going to maintain an Android fork, I wonder how well Android apps will be able to play with it. It would be a huge disappointment if 2.2+ apps wer

If Amazon are going to maintain an Android fork, I wonder how well Android apps will be able to play with it. It would be a huge disappointment if 2.2+ apps were unavailable (or installing Google Market for that matter). I can see why Amazon has gone down this path, but I do wonder if it's the right thing, rather than doing everyone's favorite/most hated carrier-specific bolt-ons instead. I also hope that Amazon doesn't give up on color e-ink, because reading on a Kindle is so much nicer.

wccrawford 15y ago
The article says there's no Google Market. Only Amazon's. As for forking, I'm guessing it's not really a fork. It's just got their own UI on top, but they'll continue to get the rest of the updates from Google.
- rryan 15y ago
  In that sense of a fork, all manufacturers of Android have forked it. I assume if they (or the person who showed it to MG) called it a fork that would be more significant than just a custom UI (which Android is designed to facilitate).
  - wanorris 15y ago
    The "Google Experience" has always been an optional part of Android that required additional licensing, but all the major Android manufacturers have licensed it. The lack of it means that this diverges from the typical Android device much more than Samsung, HTC, or Motorola devices. When you throw in the fact that the main shell is considerably different (a content browser rather than a widget environment), I'd say that the use of the term "fork" is understandable, even if not quite right.
- estel 15y ago
  If this device has no physical buttons, then it seems likely that it would have to be a true fork.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
sliverstorm 15y ago
From the sounds of it, it does not "Run Android" much more than the Kindle "Runs Linux". Sure, my Kindle has a Linux kernel in there somewhere, but it's almost entirely inconsequential and invisible to me as a user; it's just the core the dev team happened to use.
- sdz 15y ago
  Well, it is Android in the sense that it shares the same API and thus runs Android apps from the Amazon Appstore.
untog 15y ago
The Nook actually already does the same thing. No Market, but a vibrant hacker community based around it.
rryan 15y ago
This seems like a misstep to me that will ultimately hurt users and developers. If any API incompatibilities emerge (beyond the normal API level that Android uses to distinguish between release APIs) then developers will be forced to fork their own products and maintain 2 separate release channels -- one for the Android market and one for the Kindle market. Beyond that, Android will continue to fly ahead with each release and the Kindle won't be able to keep up without significant time pulling and merging changes from upstream. I'm not looking forward to continually only having access to last years apps because the Kindle is a year behind the mainline Android release. Unless Amazon goes through the Android certification process, and keeps their "fork" as a pure UI modification, I'm going to pass on this. It might be bright and shiny on day 1, but on day 365 it could be a different story.
- officemonkey 15y ago
  You're seeing this as a crippled android tablet. It's not. It's a kindle. There's a big market out there for people who just want to read a book. They don't want to GPS with Google Maps, they don't want to install Yelp, or Trulia, or GrubHub apps. They just want to read, listen to music, and watch a video when they're on the bus or on the couch. Amazon has done well by providing focus to the Kindle. Where I commute it's more popular than the iPad. They may someday decide to take Apple head-on with an Android tablet, but it's not gonna be this year.
  - nutjob123 15y ago
    That's not the point. Amazon IS including their android app store with the tablet and if the tablet only supports old android api's then developers will need to write seperate code for regular android and kindle android.
    - wanorris 15y ago
      If you want to reach a wide audience on Android, you already need to be prepared to support older Android releases, because most phones don't get upgraded after purchase.
  - 15y ago
cageface 15y ago
It seems like Amazon is gambling here that most users don't really care about apps that much, which jibes with my own intuitions about the android market. If you have a good web browser and email client the rest is unnecessary gravy, at least to a lot of people.
- danilocampos 15y ago
  If they believed that, I'm not sure they would have gone to the trouble of building their own app distribution channel. I would posit that they believe people care about apps a great deal, and that Amazon would like to be positioned to make some money from that demand, either through a cut of sales or by making their hardware more attractive since it "has apps." They're the original kings of one-click buying, before Apple even sold apps. They'll make a killing and so will any developers who hitch their wagon to Amazon's strategy.

wccrawford 15y ago

The article says there's no Google Market. Only Amazon's. As for forking, I'm guessing it's not really a fork. It's just got their own UI on top, but they'll continue to get the rest of the updates from Google.

rryan 15y ago
In that sense of a fork, all manufacturers of Android have forked it. I assume if they (or the person who showed it to MG) called it a fork that would be more significant than just a custom UI (which Android is designed to facilitate).
- wanorris 15y ago
  The "Google Experience" has always been an optional part of Android that required additional licensing, but all the major Android manufacturers have licensed it. The lack of it means that this diverges from the typical Android device much more than Samsung, HTC, or Motorola devices. When you throw in the fact that the main shell is considerably different (a content browser rather than a widget environment), I'd say that the use of the term "fork" is understandable, even if not quite right.
estel 15y ago
If this device has no physical buttons, then it seems likely that it would have to be a true fork.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]

sliverstorm 15y ago

From the sounds of it, it does not "Run Android" much more than the Kindle "Runs Linux". Sure, my Kindle has a Linux kernel in there somewhere, but it's almost entirely inconsequential and invisible to me as a user; it's just the core the dev team happened to use.

sdz 15y ago
Well, it is Android in the sense that it shares the same API and thus runs Android apps from the Amazon Appstore.

untog 15y ago

The Nook actually already does the same thing. No Market, but a vibrant hacker community based around it.

rryan 15y ago

This seems like a misstep to me that will ultimately hurt users and developers. If any API incompatibilities emerge (beyond the normal API level that Android uses to distinguish between release APIs) then developers will be forced to fork their own products and maintain 2 separate release channels -- one for the Android market and one for the Kindle market. Beyond that, Android will continue to fly ahead with each release and the Kindle won't be able to keep up without significant time pulling and merging changes from upstream. I'm not looking forward to continually only having access to last years apps because the Kindle is a year behind the mainline Android release. Unless Amazon goes through the Android certification process, and keeps their "fork" as a pure UI modification, I'm going to pass on this. It might be bright and shiny on day 1, but on day 365 it could be a different story.

officemonkey 15y ago
You're seeing this as a crippled android tablet. It's not. It's a kindle. There's a big market out there for people who just want to read a book. They don't want to GPS with Google Maps, they don't want to install Yelp, or Trulia, or GrubHub apps. They just want to read, listen to music, and watch a video when they're on the bus or on the couch. Amazon has done well by providing focus to the Kindle. Where I commute it's more popular than the iPad. They may someday decide to take Apple head-on with an Android tablet, but it's not gonna be this year.
- nutjob123 15y ago
  That's not the point. Amazon IS including their android app store with the tablet and if the tablet only supports old android api's then developers will need to write seperate code for regular android and kindle android.
  - wanorris 15y ago
    If you want to reach a wide audience on Android, you already need to be prepared to support older Android releases, because most phones don't get upgraded after purchase.
- 15y ago

cageface 15y ago

It seems like Amazon is gambling here that most users don't really care about apps that much, which jibes with my own intuitions about the android market. If you have a good web browser and email client the rest is unnecessary gravy, at least to a lot of people.

danilocampos 15y ago
If they believed that, I'm not sure they would have gone to the trouble of building their own app distribution channel. I would posit that they believe people care about apps a great deal, and that Amazon would like to be positioned to make some money from that demand, either through a cut of sales or by making their hardware more attractive since it "has apps." They're the original kings of one-click buying, before Apple even sold apps. They'll make a killing and so will any developers who hitch their wagon to Amazon's strategy.