It should come as no surprise that the once big claim of Google was it free open sharing platform has taken a different turn. This is due to Google wanting control back and I don’t blame them.

Google has practically released large chunks of its operating system as apps in the Google Play store. As more and more parts of the operating system get launched on the play store, this means Google is under no obligation to provide the source code of its apps and can slowly claw back control again.

Just go to the play store and search “Google”. The list of apps ranges from Google Keyboard, Play Music, Play Books, Gmail, Google Calendar and so on.

It’s ironic that the main draw of android originally was that it was free and open. It has become so big, it now has become necessary for Google to reign it back in, and become more like Apple and Microsoft. That’s not a bad thing, and it might reduce fragmentation and enable Google’s services and apps to remain updated on everyone’s android phone without the carrier or manufacturer interfering.