"The only point in favour of custom skins is that it theoretically allows manufacturers to differentiate and as a result offers more choice to end users." But

"The only point in favour of custom skins is that it theoretically allows manufacturers to differentiate and as a result offers more choice to end users." But is this even a real choice? It's not like the skins bring much to the party other than inertia and entropy. I doubt that they drive much in the way of sales. I also doubt that Android versions drive many sales, but there are substantive reasons for users to be on the latest possible versions that have nothing to do with the UI -- security foremost among them. It sometimes seems like nobody at Google really thought through the implications of their phone strategy.