The Acer/Google/Alibaba tussle: It's not about open Android
Summary: The recent cancellation of an Acer phone launch got tongues wagging about Google's involvement. Google's insistence that Acer stop the launch of a phone running the Aliyun OS by Alibaba in China got observers grousing about the "openness" of Android. Fact is it's not about Android at all.
Last week Acer was scheduled to hold a press event to launch a new smartphone running the Aliyun OS from Alibaba. Aliyun is built on the Android framework, but is a totally different fork of Android that according to Google renders it incompatible with the Android ecosystem. The launch event was cancelled at the last moment due to pressure on Acer from Google to stop the madness.
Acer immediately jumped in with a public complaint that Google was not being very open with Android. Alibaba also lamented that if Android was really open then Google would not be pressuring Acer to stop using it.
According to Andy Rubin of Google the company stepped in not to stop this fork of Android but to stop Acer from violating the agreement it entered when it joined the Open Handset Alliance (OHA). That is an alliance of OEMs who joined up early in the life of Android to promote the use of the platform for the good of all. Rubin states that the members of the OHA agreed to not use forks of Android incompatible with the ecosystem, and that Aliyun definitely fits that description.
"However, the fact is, Aliyun uses the Android runtime, framework and tools. And your app store contains Android apps (including pirated Google apps). So there's really no disputing that Aliyun is based on the Android platform and takes advantage of all the hard work that's gone into that platform by the OHA. " — Andy Rubin
Rubin also stated emphatically that Aliyun is based on Android, even including pirated Google apps. That's a telling statement and likely the reason behind Google's stepping in to stop Acer from using it, as the OHA agreement allows.
So Acer invoked the ire of Google not by using a fork of Android, but for using an incompatible fork in violation of the OHA terms. That's not the same thing as forcing Acer to stop using this particular fork of the platform just because Google doesn't like it.
The biggest fork of Android is the system Amazon is using on the Kindle Fires, and Google is not trying to pressure Amazon to stop using it. The reason is simple -- Amazon is not a member of the OHA and has not agreed to not do so. Acer would be in the same boat as Amazon if not for that pesky OHA membership which forbids the practice.
So this has nothing to do with the openness of Android (or lack of it). It has everything to do with the agreement that OHA members enter into that is designed to protect all the members from the very thing Acer has done with Aliyun. Or not done, since Google has successfully pointed out to Acer that it is in violation of the OHA.
This type of agreement is standard for alliances of this type. Members who join, while competitors, often agree to not compete in certain ways. This forms the basis of the alliance agreement that Acer has now violated according to Google.
This type of agreement is similar to those of many homeowners' associations or condo groups. You buy a condo and you sign an agreement defining what you can and can't do that might adversely affect the rest of the condo owners.
For example, a condo agreement may prohibit the use of red front doors for whatever reason. If you as a new condo owner paint your door red you are in violation of the agreement you signed upon joining the group. It is no surprise the condo group will immediately demand, legally if necessary, that you repaint your door an approved color.
That doesn't mean the condo group is trying to control what you do with your own condo. It is enforcing the agreement each owner enters to preserve the value of the property as a whole. This is exactly what Google is doing with Acer and the OHA agreement. It's not about Android, it's about protecting the ecosystem as Rubin has stated.
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Talkback
Children instead of business
The worst part is all the reporting that is going on which is a lot like gossip. This is purely an issue that happened between two companies doing business together. We the consumer really do not need to hear this happening but when two companies put this information out to the public then this is exactly what happens. I for one am not too happy with all this that has goes on in the public eye regarding any of these companies. Act like children and we will treat you as such, act like adults and we will treat you that way. Keep your fights and arguments in your own house so we don't have to listen to them. Are you listening?
Opinions Vary
Due to the announcements/rumours, I was looking forward to see exactly what Acer was launching (rumor vs. actual). The announcement of it not being launched leaves me with a want to know why.
As omthe level of reporting.... Chuckle
They have to protect the compatibility and they have to be rough about it!
No more fragmentation
I use desktop Linux (Ubuntu 10.04), and prefer it to OS X or any flavor of Windows, but Linux is never going to get past 5% desktop share because of its hackerish cultural roots.
Windows too had hackerish roots.
Ooh...
Adopting a new distribution isn't that hard anyway - we're adding Raspbian to the mix without difficulty (and starting to deploy it - though not yet into a typical "desktop" role). It joins OS X and Windows in the mix of deployed systems (and Linux, of course).
Something that you don't notice
What if the electrical receptacles in your house were different from everyone else's, what if you could not find a light bulb that fitted yours, what if you bought a toaster and you could not plug it in? What if the steering wheel and pedals on your car was in a different place or arrangement than everyone else's? Or the Gas nozzle would not fit into your tank filler?
You compare companies like Apple to Google, when in this respect they are the very antitheses of each other. Apple is going for standards that ONLY THEY can use, (copyright and patent MONOPOLY) while Google is going for standards that EVERYONE can use (UNIVERSAL) Example: If you buy an iPhone 5 you will have to but new cradle devices (alarm clocks, and playback devices etc.) or but new adapter pigtails. Only Apple will sell these of course, or charge exorbitant licenses for others to produce them. And sue everyone who attempts to work around this Apple created monopoly.
Suppose only GE was allowed to sell toasters that fit your outlets or worked with the electrical power standards, what price do you think a toaster would cost?
This is all about the power elite protecting themselves with the system of legally granted monopolies. If you research the beginnings of the "copyright" and "patent" systems you will find that these were implemented by the RULING CLASS. At that time those laws would only apply to them because they were the only ones educated (could read and write and had some scientific education) But when we had the liberalization of the legal system then the laws applied to EVERYONE, and these MONOPOLISTIC type laws became an anachronism, that serve no SOCIAL GOOD or benefit, although that is what the legal spin of what they provide is. They are basically saying that for instance "if there was no patent law that inventions would cease, or there would be less of them", "if there was no copyright law that creative writing and music would cease". You could say the same thing about "cooking" or "clothing manufacture". But back in the day when these MONOPOLISTIC systems were implemented it was the serfs and not the RULING CLASS that did the cooking and made the clothing.
There is one other thing about the Amazon
And just as importantly..
After all It's the play store that matters; it's the gravy train, google is doing it's best to protect it. I don't disagree with them on that one. As the article suggests it's not about open source software; lets be honest with the OHA it never really was. Just like Apple and microsoft, Google have to take steps to protect their income due to effects of piracy. Would they bother to come down on acer with heavy threats if this fork still used the store dispite breaking other goals of the project? It's hard to say, but I'd have though it's unlikely.
I'm a linux user but one thing i have learned from linux Desktop is
With this decision they protect their compatibility and their business so why not?! Google has not opened a charity they have to make money too i don't understand why should anyone have a problem with that!
?
The first bit's a bit spurious; plenty of OSS advancements have come through entirely voluntary work. However it is true that most of the major advancents do come from the companies behind the scenes; most notably red hat in linux, but that doesn't detract from the charitable projects that rely on donations and sponsors.
The reason that OSS purists get annoyed at google is that their coding contribution back to linux isn't that great. Looking at the contributions to the linux kernel last year, google managed just 1% (just 50% more than MS and half as much as Oracle) whilst nokia contirubted 20% more. Interesting 17% does still come from volunteers though.
As I said before, google can't complain about clones such as amazon; that's how they designed it; they may release under the apache licence, but there's also still lots of gpl protected code in there too.
As for the fork; well many have commented that forks of Android were inevitable due to the lack of community aspect to it's development model. It males sence; releasing code in a traditional manner would give their rivals a heads up, but it was always going to cause distibutions revuilding the OS to eventuay fork it rather than await the code.
The only isssue here is the piracy one. Google may not like amazon's model, but they can't do anything about it - it's how they released the software, and besides amazon will always be down stream, and I said previously it can easily run the play store which is what google need. Google only loose out if amazon are able to supply a superior app store, whoch is unlikely in the shor term.
But as I said, the piracy of apps in thos fork has to be fought; everyone looses put there.
Err...
One roadblock is "Silk" their browser, this alone is a showstopper.
I hope they stop Amazon
I think this is more about companies wanting to get away from Google
This fork means in incompatible with Google, and that wasn't the intention of Google when they released Android - their idea was "use this for free, we'll supply the store where people shop from". I think companies just want to get away from Google.
Just because they can't stop Amazon as they didn't join the Alliance doesn't mean Google's not feverishly looking for a way to do so. They'd love to force Amazon's hand here, but they can't.
They can with Acer, though.
Stopping by to have a drink
Just love the self fullfilling posts
Brilliant. Simply brilliant.
Open Vs Fragmentation
Android should be just one OS, people can contribute to it but Google should have the last word on what direction its headed and what gets implemented. Not so much because they made it but because the alternative is the type of fragmentation Linux currently has.
I'm secretly hoping android eventually becomes a full fledged OS not just for phones and tablets but for PCs in general and that's not going to happen if its split into incompatible pieces.
Wouldn't it be better to hope for a desktop version?
Don't forget that Android is scaled down GNU/Linux at it's heart in a similar way to iOS being scaled down Mac OS. This was due to a hardware limitation in trying to run full blown unix derived systems on phones. Now an Android distro would be exciting ( especially compared to Google's last attempt at such a thing - Chrome; nice idea, real world fail.
This is what happened to Moblin
Funny and informative
Soon enough there will be mainland China companies cranking out high quality, incompatible phones like crazy that actually cater to Chinese users. And the OHA members will be shut out and won't be able to compete. And the only Chinese people using imported phones will be the rich girls with their iPhones. Google better focus on the market or get left behind. Apple doesn't really care since the girls buy their crap anyway purely for status reasons, even though it is a pain to use in Chinese. But Google doesn't have that luxury.