lexipixel - 11:11 pm on Nov 17, 2012 (gmt 0)

When Android was being developed it was a whole different story -- Google presented itself as just one of many corporations involved in the "Open Handset Alliance" and that Android, (the target OS), would be free and open.

As I said about seven month ago here -- [webmasterworld.com...] -- now everything related to Android is geared towards promoting Google Play and Google+

Most interesting at Open Handset Alliance:

Innovating in the open Each member of the Open Handset Alliance is strongly committed to greater openness in the mobile ecosystem. Increased openness will enable everyone in our industry to innovate more rapidly and respond better to consumers’ demands. Our first joint project as a new Alliance is Android™. Android was built from the ground up with the explicit goal to be the first open, complete, and free platform created specifically for mobile devices." [openhandsetalliance.com...]

Note -- no mention of Google owning, controlling or setting iron-fisted policy on the use of Android.

...and this announcement, again, from 2007 makes not mention of Google at all: [openhandsetalliance.com...]

Here's some articles about Android forks. You can see why Google wants to control it --

Three Android Forks that Exist Today Sat, Sep 17, 2011 So you've heard about how South Korea is going to make its own, possibly Android-based open-source smartphone OS, and how China's Baidu search engine is planning an Android fork. It's true; the inevitable forking of Android is starting in earnest, as company after company (and possibly the occasional government) takes Google's open-source programming code and runs with it. And since the vast majority of Android's code is licensed under permissive, BSD-style licenses instead of the "copyleft" GPL, they don't even have to give anything back. [news.yahoo.com...]

So, I have to ask: When did Google change all things Android into being under 100% under their corporate control?

...I don't think they can now.

Here's another article promoting why Samsung should fork Android now--

"Samsung should fork Android. Samsung should take the Ice Cream Sandwich code base and follow the path blazed by the Kindle Fire; using TouchWiz user interface to maintain continuity; and the ‘S’ apps to form part of the core operating system; while continuing to work on the software services and cloud support to replicate Google’s services so any transition for the majority of the Galaxy users would be seamless. [forbes.com...]

All Google can do is rely on brand building, trademark and copyright of their own use of Android -- and keep competitors out of Play, (which will force competition in the marketplace and maybe someone will build a better "Android App Store" or whatever the lawyer's decide it can legally be called).