Amazon succeeded in making a viable, well-maintained Fire OS that used Android Open Source Project (AOSP) as an upstream. Unfortunately, that and $4.99 will get

Amazon succeeded in making a viable, well-maintained Fire OS that used Android Open Source Project (AOSP) as an upstream. Unfortunately, that and $4.99 will get you a venti latte. The only reward for hard work in doing that is more hard work. There is an alternate strategy, which is to create a family of app-layer and system software that fits Google's OEM model, and become an Android OEM, more like what Samsung did (though that isn't the best example because a lot of Samsung's software is terrible). Maybe this would be a viable backstop for Amazon. Google can throw more money at the problem because Google's upside is everything from phones (a notable Amazon fail) to TVs to cars, in addition to smart home devices.