Another interesting step in this direction is that Google stopped listing third party SDK add-ons in the Android SDK manager. They have to be added manually as

Another interesting step in this direction is that Google stopped listing third party SDK add-ons in the Android SDK manager. They have to be added manually as a URL now, which means far, far fewer developers will ever use a third party SDK add-on. It's sad, but I think it really hurt Google that they pushed tablets so hard and so long and pretty much failed at that market where amazon kicked ass. So business reasons seem to have forced them to kill Android as open and free. Reminds me a lot of this recent post about all the platforms closing up to try to squeeze more money out of mobile as web revenues dry up: http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/29/unnatural-acts-and-the-rise-of-mobile/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/29/unnatural-acts-and-the-rise... Google's bread and butter has always been web ads, and it is losing that with the mobile revolution. Now amazon came along and customized Android, and took a large share of the mobile money that Google was expecting. I do really hate the new Google Play. It is constantly showing books and movies and music in my face when I want apps and app search results directly. You can tell they are being pressured to deliver revenue at the cost of user experiences and pushed out a poor man's clone of amazon business model.