Google is currently working on their own kernel to replace Linux in Android. Should they ever manage to pull that off all the apps written for the Android SDK will still run on the new OS, even without Linux underneath.
And with that, Android becomes even more proprietary, which hands Google an actual monopoly. They're making handsets too these days, so Samsung, etc (who are all now competitors to Google, not partners) will be told to go hang themselves, or pay up.
They're clearly not paying attention to the mood in Europe. There's already a couple of EU investigations into Google's dominance of search, Web advertising, and Android (Play Services). Proprietary Android would simply make it impossible for the EU to find in Google's favour, and might finally perturb the moribund US regulators into considering action against them too.
It's like there's no communication between the senior management in Google and stock holders. It feels like someone in control of the technical side of Google is driving this expansion towards a monopoly position knowing that for a brief time they will "own the world". That'd be a good time to sell the stock. Once the regulators get involved and start dismantling the monopoly, the remaining stock holders are going to lose out. No wonder some of their shareholders are suing the company.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
