There many things wrong with that article. First, you gotta wonder at Amazon's PR machine - without even a product demo or announcement, let alone a unit sold,

There many things wrong with that article. First, you gotta wonder at Amazon's PR machine - without even a product demo or announcement, let alone a unit sold, they're already somehow Apple's #1 competitor. Second, what Amazon has apparently chosen to do (the Nook way) isn't a "fork", but a UI skin like MIUI. The OS would be the same and would be compatible with all Android apps, but the graphics and the homescreen launcher different. Third, you have to keep in mind the fact that not even Apple has been able to offer a Google-free product - maps, youtube and gmail integration are still a core, most-have part of iOS. An amazon tablet without Gmaps or navigation would be pretty lacking compared to the competition. The barrier to handset makers becoming full-fledged software and services providers is quite immense. Having said all that, I think there's quite a bit of differentiation they could do without trying to out-compete Google at their core-competency. Android allows innovative new products to be built and handset makers have been slow to take advantage of this. Examples are Motorola's Webtop, Kyocera's dual-screen phone, HTC and Samsung's stylus-optional tablets, nVidia's Tegra Zone, SE's Xperia Play etc. If they focused on executing offerings like these rather than redoing Google's work, they could both differentiate themselves and still take advantage of all the great features that come with a Google-licensed Android.