You probably didn’t use Amazon’s Android Appstore because very few people do. Outside of Kindle and FireTV devices, the Amazon Appstore is simply an afterthought; one that isn’t as good as what you already have installed from Google. That’s surely a big reason why the company is dropping the stand-alone version for “regular” Android devices. Come August 20, it’s gone. I wish it weren’t.
Not because I think you get a better experience from Amazon than you do from Google or because I can’t find what I want on the Play Store. I hate to see it happen because it’s a giant tech company with seemingly infinite resources that isn’t Google.
Normally, I would say one faceless tech super-corporation is the same as any other. That’s still true; these companies prosper and seem to have no regard for what is best for consumers. This is a special case, though, because Google is in a special position when it comes to the smartphone.
Google owns this space. You might look around and see so many people using an iPhone that this sounds silly, but close to eight of every 10 phones worldwide use Google’s Android OS. Apple has a foothold in a few places, but cheaper Android phones are what powers most of the world.
I don’t want to see any company in that unique position get stronger.
Amazon is equally as bad in many ways. It’s a business designed to find ways to profit from us all and they’re really good at it. If we were talking about commerce or online shopping, I would find the same reasons why Amazon should be reigned in. However, we are talking about smartphones and the Android platform in particular.
Amazon is one of the few companies that could have found a way to compete with Google. This wasn’t one of the company’s primary goals and the Amazon Appstore is in place to bolster Amazon’s own Android-powered devices like the Kindle Tablet. If the company had wanted, it could have invested and tried things that would attract consumers to its storefront, stealing potential purchases and control away from Google.
There are plenty of alternative app markets for Android, and some of them are very good; they’re more open and more secure, and that’s tough to pull off. None of these companies are in a position to make a difference in how Google exercises control. At least not the same way Amazon is. And control is 100% the meat of the issue.
Google is not your friend. I know sometimes it feels that way, and the informal language and friendly onboarding make Google seem like someone you would want to hang out with. It really isn’t. As a U.S. corporation, it has only one purpose: to maximize profits for shareholders. This is because the law demands it do everything legal to maximize the value of the corporation. In other words, Android only exists to make Alphabet more valuable, and every decision reflects this.
Google also isn’t nearly as open as the company likes to pretend. To use Android, you only have to download and build it. To use Androidtm you have to follow a strict set of rules; yes, Google has trademarked the Android name.
That’s not a bad thing. Without some sort of control, Android would turn into “Linux on the desktop,” where it seems disjointed, and each instance is different from the others. Imagine trying to use a phone where the manufacturer could do anything they wanted to do with the software.
There has to be some sort of balance. Google can not be allowed to do whatever it wants with no regard for the consumer or the competition. We’ve seen the governmental scrutiny Google has come under quite a few times, but this usually only addresses the most grievous issues. We also need some healthy — and worthy — competition to keep Google in check.
And now we’re going to have less of it.