That's just it. People can talk about how we "need" an OS that isn't dependent on Apple or Google services but there are already other options out there that O

That's just it. People can talk about how we "need" an OS that isn't dependent on Apple or Google services but there are already other options out there that OEMs could (and occasionally do) use and none has seemed to gain much traction or support. Even now can't an OEM fork Android or use AOSP as a base without any Googly stuff while providing their own replacements for gapps? I honestly don't see a lot of interest in this from the OEMs other than maybe Amazon (which isn't exactly a great example). I'd imagine they don't want to invest the extra resources into that sort of development when they can stick to skinning and questionable add-on software while letting Google or whoever handle the rest. And as a user, even if I didn't really want the Play Store or whatever, does anyone really expect HTC or Samsung to do better? Best case scenario you end up with questionable Samsung or HTC services instead of Google services. And Google makes their money from software and attached services instead of hardware so at least they have some level of interest in running those services. Everything I've seen so far tells me that OEMs are even worse than the software companies in terms of developing/maintaining an OS or a fork of an existing one. It would be interesting to see a company that makes their money from hardware getting into the OS space but so far, Apple is the only one that seems to have the resources and interest to do that fairly well while the software companies like Microsoft and Google live and die by convincing OEMs to license their platforms and bring in more customers for associated services.