This remains a problem: Google has locked up all the Android smartphone OSM’s with contracts restricting what other operating systems they can put on the phones they manufacture. Especially restricting forks of Android.
While Google may claim they are keeping Android from fragmenting, the reality is that this is anti-competative, while giving Google control over the entire smartphone industry except for Apple. This is not Capitalism, this is predatory corporatism that needs to be broken up.
When looked at through this lens it makes Microsoft giving up on Windows Phone and HP’s giving up on webOS doubly tragic.
