Those companies have always developed some of their own, “hardware-specific” software and never released the results to the public either.
(Correct me if I’m wrong here, but that’s probably why pixels of the past have had really good ROMs, while phones from other companies are lucky to get LineageOS on them.)
To use the word “Android” on their devices, they already have some kind of backroom deal with Google. Nobody really knows what that deal entails, though. It would take a(nother) lawsuit to find out.
AFAIK (I may be wrong), you have to pay google for bundling Google Play Services on your phone. For example, Purism probably does not pay Google anything because it only uses AOSP + it’s own suite of services. However, Android 17 will be a bit concerning. Let’s wait till we get a bit more clarity.
Those companies have always developed some of their own, “hardware-specific” software and never released the results to the public either.
(Correct me if I’m wrong here, but that’s probably why pixels of the past have had really good ROMs, while phones from other companies are lucky to get LineageOS on them.)
That’s not what I meant. Will the other OEMs have to pay Google for using Android 17 (since it’s not open-source anymore) ?
To use the word “Android” on their devices, they already have some kind of backroom deal with Google. Nobody really knows what that deal entails, though. It would take a(nother) lawsuit to find out.
AFAIK (I may be wrong), you have to pay google for bundling Google Play Services on your phone. For example, Purism probably does not pay Google anything because it only uses AOSP + it’s own suite of services. However, Android 17 will be a bit concerning. Let’s wait till we get a bit more clarity.