They don't even mention the real issue of the Play store, or lack thereof. The real reason nobody seems to want it is that the apps aren't there, and they tried

They don't even mention the real issue of the Play store, or lack thereof. The real reason nobody seems to want it is that the apps aren't there, and they tried to substitute some silly gimmicks in hope that nobody would notice. If they Play store and the rest of the Google apps were there, I bet it would sell fine at the original price. Without them, they're having trouble giving them away. Of course, that would mean kowtowing to Google, and the real purpose of the Fire line of Android forks is get Amazon out from under Google's thumb. They're welcome to try, but I'm not about to sacrifice my experience to help them. The deeper issue yet is the still open question of the third ecosystem. Apple and Google have theirs already. It remains to be seen if there is room for a third, but plenty of companies are opening their wallets to try. IMHO, Microsoft looks to have the best shot at it now. For Amazon, it's hard to see them pulling it off when the core of what they're working with is a fork of Android. How are we supposed to believe that they're ever going to be better than Google is at Android?