I think this article, while informative, could stand to be a little more charitable towards the Android team.
Another perspective: Karim Yaghmour, author of Embedded Android, a book I highly recommend for anyone looking to learn about how the Android platform works, writes, "despite its awkward development model from an open source community perspective, it remains that Google's work on Android is a godsend for a large number of developers. Plus, it has accomplished one thing no other open source project was ever able to: created a massively successful Linux distribution. It would, therefore, be hard to fault Android's development team for its work."
Saying things like "the second you try to take Android and do something that Google doesn't approve of, it will bring the world crashing down upon you" diminishes how much the AOSP does. Because of AOSP, developers and tinkerers have dozens of popular choices for custom ROMs and custom kernels that can be flashed on a bootloader-unlocked device. Google itself tries to make getting bootloader-unlocked devices easy, though carriers and OEMs often have their own policies.
Taken altogether I think the most fair evaluation is that Android's ubiquity is valuable to Google, but that doesn't mean its open-source-ness is any less valuable to developers and users.
I honestly don't think Google needs anyone's charity. And bear in mind that Ron Amadeo is far from a anti-Google critic here. He's a former writer for Android Police, a fan blog. I've found his articles incredibly fair.
Another perspective: Karim Yaghmour, author of Embedded Android, a book I highly recommend for anyone looking to learn about how the Android platform works, writes, "despite its awkward development model from an open source community perspective, it remains that Google's work on Android is a godsend for a large number of developers. Plus, it has accomplished one thing no other open source project was ever able to: created a massively successful Linux distribution. It would, therefore, be hard to fault Android's development team for its work."
Saying things like "the second you try to take Android and do something that Google doesn't approve of, it will bring the world crashing down upon you" diminishes how much the AOSP does. Because of AOSP, developers and tinkerers have dozens of popular choices for custom ROMs and custom kernels that can be flashed on a bootloader-unlocked device. Google itself tries to make getting bootloader-unlocked devices easy, though carriers and OEMs often have their own policies.
On the other hand, Skyhook v. Google (http://www.gpsbusinessnews.com/Google-Settles-Litigation-wit...) is compelling evidence that Android's value to the rest of Google is as a medium for presenting Google apps and services.
Taken altogether I think the most fair evaluation is that Android's ubiquity is valuable to Google, but that doesn't mean its open-source-ness is any less valuable to developers and users.