I think these issues are really overblown. Few apps would use the latest APIs anyway, since that would exclude a large number of devices from running the app.<p>Also of course Google is/was aware that some competitors would chose to remove the Google apps completely.
Ignoring the fact that developers can trivially write apps that target Kindle Fire and regular Android tablets with literally no effort to distinguish them required?<p>>That’s because the Kindle Fire will destroy Google’s ability to enhance, extend and improve Android on tablet hardware, effectively substituting Google’s ambitious plans with Amazon’s rather pedestrian goals of delivering a movie playing, basic app running ebook reader that technically “runs” Android while it figuratively runs it into the ground.<p>What? A different, modified UI means that Amazon will stop keeping their common Android codebase in sync with upstream AOSP? That's ludicrous. Is the author assuming that the Kindle will dwarf all other Android tablets, so much that devs are encouraged to develop for it (which is <i>still a subset of AOSP</i>) rather than all generic Android devices?<p>How do people so quickly forget everyone decrying Android's first year as a phone OS?
Its one of the bnefits as well as perils of open source. And it will benefit the platform as a whole. Amazon cannot afford to move too far away from the core android that is developed by Google as it will otherwise lose all the new apps and capabilities. It will benefir them to follow androd whereever google takes it.