Is this a bad thing? That depends on how you look at the situation. If someone in China can sell a $50 phone that has a built-in web browser to a man who used to own a Nokia dumb phone with a black and white screen, that’s progress in my book. On the other hand, Google obviously wants people to use their services, so people taking Android’s source code, tweaking it, and then compiling it into something completely different obviously ruins that. Now that we “know” how many Android devices run the “real” version of Android, how does Google’s OS stack up against the iPhone? Android is still clearly ahead, but not by as much as you’d think. Apple’s iOS had an 18% share of the smartphone market in Q4, versus “real” Android at 52%. Nothing to sneeze at, but what’s concerning is that the “fake” version of Android is growing far faster than the “real” version of Android.
