> Android is completely subsidized by advertising revenue
This is why being open source is such a beautiful thing. Yes, Google could falter and stop developing Android, but the code they have put in Github lives forever. They could also turn completely evil and start misusing Android in exploitative or evil ways - but they can only do that to a certain extent before someone will pick up the baton, fork Android and replace them. The loss of the Google parts of the ecosystem would be huge, but you can see from the products that are on the market that are unblessed by Google that even without any Google involvement, Android is completely functional and useful OS.
This is why being open source is such a beautiful thing. Yes, Google could falter and stop developing Android, but the code they have put in Github lives forever. They could also turn completely evil and start misusing Android in exploitative or evil ways - but they can only do that to a certain extent before someone will pick up the baton, fork Android and replace them. The loss of the Google parts of the ecosystem would be huge, but you can see from the products that are on the market that are unblessed by Google that even without any Google involvement, Android is completely functional and useful OS.