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Very disappointing - ridiculous in fact given there should be literally no excuse to put 2.1 on modern hardware. Amazon's a pretty big SW company. I wouldn't

Very disappointing - ridiculous in fact given there should be literally no excuse to put 2.1 on modern hardware. Amazon's a pretty big SW company. I wouldn't be surprised if they started their fork with 2.1, but will bare no resemblance to it. Amazon may have their own internal Android fork built up now and may not merge back with the Google version of Android. I don't think Amazon wants Google to control their destiny. And considering what Google has done in their 3.x branch (none of which is very impressive), Amazon may well believe they can out execute Google. And considering how few Android tablets have shipped, Amazon could really quickly dominate the Android tablet market -- and then be the one calling the shots.

blinkingled 15y ago
Sure, but what happens when Google's Android market place remains dominant, they release new versions of Android for Tablet and SmartPhone that become incompatible with Amazon's version of Amadroid? It doesn't have to be forever - if new games, new high-demand software is released for Android phones and Tabelts, even if it takes 6 months for Amazon to make their OS compatible and 6 more for app developers to put out their apps on Amazon App Store - they lose. Amazon doesn't make phones - Google and its partners do and that's where most of the Android app ecosystem is focused. I honestly don't think Amazon will take that risk - their changes are going to be cleanly designed such that they can pull Google's AOSP code, merge their changes and crank out their own updates. I can't see Amazon developing 2.1 code base without merging Google's bits from newer releases - there is just no way they are going to be able to catch up with all the stuff Google and co. are putting in Android - they will never have that kind of expertise unless they hire people from Google/Android team which I find somewhat far fetched. Keeping up with the releases from 2.1 and going to 4.0 is going to be a huge pain. And that will be required for compatibility sooner or later.
- jonknee 15y ago
  > Sure, but what happens when Google's Android market place remains dominant, they release new versions of Android for Tablet and SmartPhone that become incompatible with Amazon's version of Amadroid? Nothing will happen. Kindle Fire users will continue to read their books, watch their movies / tv shows and browse the web as before. This is being marketed as a Kindle for a reason.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - blinkingled 15y ago
    I am not sure how you can be so confident. Amazon is selling the app store to users along with the Kindle as part of the $300 price. Users will play Angry Birds on their Kindles, look at their other friends playing other new games and using other interesting apps on their Google Market based devices. They won't be able to get to those if stock Android and Amazon Android diverge even further. Game devs and App devs won't be first to put their stuff on Amazon's store because of a) incompatibility issues and b)Phones are where it is with Android and they all run Google's market. I am not saying this is what will happen - just a potential scenario. I am actually pretty sure Amazon will have a plan to preserve compatibility with stock Android. I was refuting OP's point that Amazon will have a different 2.1 based Android going forward and they won't bother with rebasing to Google releases.

blinkingled 15y ago

Sure, but what happens when Google's Android market place remains dominant, they release new versions of Android for Tablet and SmartPhone that become incompatible with Amazon's version of Amadroid? It doesn't have to be forever - if new games, new high-demand software is released for Android phones and Tabelts, even if it takes 6 months for Amazon to make their OS compatible and 6 more for app developers to put out their apps on Amazon App Store - they lose. Amazon doesn't make phones - Google and its partners do and that's where most of the Android app ecosystem is focused. I honestly don't think Amazon will take that risk - their changes are going to be cleanly designed such that they can pull Google's AOSP code, merge their changes and crank out their own updates. I can't see Amazon developing 2.1 code base without merging Google's bits from newer releases - there is just no way they are going to be able to catch up with all the stuff Google and co. are putting in Android - they will never have that kind of expertise unless they hire people from Google/Android team which I find somewhat far fetched. Keeping up with the releases from 2.1 and going to 4.0 is going to be a huge pain. And that will be required for compatibility sooner or later.

jonknee 15y ago
> Sure, but what happens when Google's Android market place remains dominant, they release new versions of Android for Tablet and SmartPhone that become incompatible with Amazon's version of Amadroid? Nothing will happen. Kindle Fire users will continue to read their books, watch their movies / tv shows and browse the web as before. This is being marketed as a Kindle for a reason.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- blinkingled 15y ago
  I am not sure how you can be so confident. Amazon is selling the app store to users along with the Kindle as part of the $300 price. Users will play Angry Birds on their Kindles, look at their other friends playing other new games and using other interesting apps on their Google Market based devices. They won't be able to get to those if stock Android and Amazon Android diverge even further. Game devs and App devs won't be first to put their stuff on Amazon's store because of a) incompatibility issues and b)Phones are where it is with Android and they all run Google's market. I am not saying this is what will happen - just a potential scenario. I am actually pretty sure Amazon will have a plan to preserve compatibility with stock Android. I was refuting OP's point that Amazon will have a different 2.1 based Android going forward and they won't bother with rebasing to Google releases.