Does Google really have Android though? Android is open source with a flexible enough license that if Google ever tried to tighten their grip too much, they'd lose the dev community quickly.
They own the Play store and Google services, but you can create an AOSP device (a non Play/Google services device) with no issues, and some chinese/low-end players already do that exactly to avoid some of the licensing costs and requirements.They may have had a very good handle on Android talent in the start, but now every facet of Android engineering has a non negligible community outside of Google.
I'm not saying it's like Google has nothing, but their position in the Android universe is one or two bad moves away from slipping from their grip at any moment. It's not a hard link like Apple's.
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