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It seems like Microsoft and Amazon are not getting the real benefit of this platform by excluding the Google Play store from their versions of the Android exper

It seems like Microsoft and Amazon are not getting the real benefit of this platform by excluding the Google Play store from their versions of the Android experience. I guess it's understandable why they're doing that, it's just bad for users. Are there some kind of licensing terms that prevent them from shipping forks like this with the Google Play store as one of two app stores available? Would they have to make the all the Google apps 'first class' citizens just to allow users the ability to install any of them ala carte?

snorkel 12y ago
The real battleground is services. Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft want everyone to buy their phone because it delivers their services and their ecosystem. Doesn't matter what the operating system happens to be.
nnnnni 12y ago
My Kindle Fire HD was intolerable until I rooted it and installed the Google Play store!
ewzimm 12y ago
Yes, Google requires making their search and services default and allows only superficial Android modifications for anyone who wants to distribute Google Play Services. Reference: http://www.androidbeat.com/2014/02/android-open-google-certified-android-not/ http://www.androidbeat.com/2014/02/android-open-google-certi...
- spinchange 12y ago
  Thanks for the link. I thought I vaguely remembered hearing something about this before. Just as with Microsoft and Amazon, I get why Google does this, but I think it hurts users and pretty much guarantees there's going to be limited Android experiences for lots of users out there. "Take all our apps, on our terms, or take none," pretty much guarantees the Microsofts and Amazons of the world are going to take none. Andorid may be an open platform but it's primary app distribution channel clearly is not. It's an interesting contortion...they don't qualitatively screen apps, but they effectively screen what flavor of the platform can have the chief app repository itself.
  - ewzimm 12y ago
    They often also cause a bad experience. 512MB Android devices are cheap and popular, but they run poorly when Google+, Google Play Books, Google Play Newsstand, etc. are always running in the background. Most people won't go to the trouble of disabling all of them and won't realize that their devices can actually run well. It would be easy to feature them prominently inside Google Play instead of pre-installing them.

snorkel 12y ago

The real battleground is services. Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft want everyone to buy their phone because it delivers their services and their ecosystem. Doesn't matter what the operating system happens to be.

nnnnni 12y ago

My Kindle Fire HD was intolerable until I rooted it and installed the Google Play store!

ewzimm 12y ago

Yes, Google requires making their search and services default and allows only superficial Android modifications for anyone who wants to distribute Google Play Services. Reference: http://www.androidbeat.com/2014/02/android-open-google-certified-android-not/ http://www.androidbeat.com/2014/02/android-open-google-certi...

spinchange 12y ago
Thanks for the link. I thought I vaguely remembered hearing something about this before. Just as with Microsoft and Amazon, I get why Google does this, but I think it hurts users and pretty much guarantees there's going to be limited Android experiences for lots of users out there. "Take all our apps, on our terms, or take none," pretty much guarantees the Microsofts and Amazons of the world are going to take none. Andorid may be an open platform but it's primary app distribution channel clearly is not. It's an interesting contortion...they don't qualitatively screen apps, but they effectively screen what flavor of the platform can have the chief app repository itself.
- ewzimm 12y ago
  They often also cause a bad experience. 512MB Android devices are cheap and popular, but they run poorly when Google+, Google Play Books, Google Play Newsstand, etc. are always running in the background. Most people won't go to the trouble of disabling all of them and won't realize that their devices can actually run well. It would be easy to feature them prominently inside Google Play instead of pre-installing them.