Samsung could have bought and suffocated Android, but it's not obvious that they could have killed the movement towards and open platform(1). It's not like the

Samsung could have bought and suffocated Android, but it's not obvious that they could have killed the movement towards and open platform(1). It's not like the idea of an open smartphone OS was unique or even new at the time. I don't think Android as it stood in 2005 was something Google could not have re-built from scratch in a few month if they decided it was the way to go - in other words, wasn't it more of an aquihire? 1: Let's skip the discussion as to whether Android is actually free and open source and instead remember how much more open Android is compared to what was before.