Re:Ask HN: What about a Google buy out of Amazon?
by runjake on Wednesday August 17, 2011 @11:28AM
(#2895644)
I'm not sure your stance is accurate. Google does allow OEMs to use Android in ways I can't see where it clearly benefits Google's bottom line.
Seems there's been quite a few Android devices that have shipped with much of the Google services stripped out, and replaced with Bing/other vendor apps. This was going on at Verizon Wireless, at least for a while, and is again occurring with a recently announced Android tablet.
Re:Ask HN: What about a Google buy out of Amazon?
by polyfractal on Wednesday August 17, 2011 @02:21PM
(#2896316)
Ahh, I was not aware of that. I assumed OEMs built on top of Android (and google functionality), rather than ripping internals out.
Re:Ask HN: What about a Google buy out of Amazon?
by runjake on Thursday August 18, 2011 @12:22PM
(#2899818)
It depends on what you define as "on top", but no, stuff like HTC's Sense and Motorola's BLUR make relatively low-level changes/replacements to what is generally considered Android. It's rather sad.
Google is just continuing their moat/scorched earth strategy. Google's bread and butter is advertising, everything else is just a moat to protect that. Search, Chrome, Android - they all help Google's advertising bottom line. If Amazon built an Android-based Kindle, Google would be tickled pink.
Motorola Mobility was a strategic buy. Predominantly, patent protection against Apple and Microsoft. But secondarily it helps them secure a permanent Android vendor. Buying Amazon doesn't really further their goals or business model. Amazon is a distribution juggernaut that is orthogonal to Google in just about every way (except AWS)