Android has been friendly toward removing the mothership since day one. Anyone can deliver APKs using either a homegrown app store (see Amazon&#x27;s App Store app) or by just letting the user download APKs from the browser.<p>The problem is that most app developers currently -only- distribute their app via Google Play, as it&#x27;s the primary distribution channel that devices tend to come with. This isn&#x27;t a complete lock-in, since you can still get those installed APKs from a device where they&#x27;ve been installed and archive them or reinstall them on other devices. (Refer to ApkMirror as an ethically dubious prime example of this)<p>Still, this is nothing to hold against Android itself.