Here are the options one has when trying to make a phone:<p>1) Write your own OS from scratch
2) Borrow an existing OS (e.g. Linux) and build all of rest of the layers and services (e.g. Tizen)
3) Borrow an existing mobile OS (e.g. Android), and build all of the rest of the layers and services (FireOS, etc)
4) Borrow an existing mobile OS (e.g. Google Android), and all the layers and services<p>What vendors seem to be saying is #1, #2, and #3 are "too hard" and that consumers are demanding Google's Apps and Services. What these manufacturers want to do is, design some commodity hardware, put on the stuff consumers are demanding (Google's services), but then load them up with other stuff (which many consumers would call bloatware or junk).<p>But how easy should one expect it to be to ship a phone? Seriously, 10 or 20 years ago, you not only had to make a lot of custom hardware design, but you had to have a lot of inhouse embedded software engineering. These days, most of this stuff is available off the shelf, and Chinese manufacturers can slap together a new phone and drop Android in it extremely quickly, all at low cost.<p>If there was no Android, and just two proprietary platforms (iOS + Windows, or iOS + Symbian), their situation would be even worse.<p>Android's brand already has bad branding from fragmentation and security issues. Paradox of choice tends to drive conformity and commodification, so I'm not sure the situation would be much better otherwise.<p>If you want to launch consumer phone hardware and get lots of customers, IMHO, you should expect it to be hard and differentiating and have to put in enormous software work. I honestly don't think Android manufacturers are going to standout on small software tweaks and packaging of apps.<p>If you're an Android manufacturer and you think the key to standing out in innovation, I don't think it's going to come from skinning Android and replacing one of apps on the homescreen. Just IMHO, but this seems more like companies wanting to take shortcuts without putting in the hardwork that Apple or Google have made to convince users of the value of a custom platform.