The reason Android is the only viable competitor is because they&#x27;re an illegal monopoly, and they&#x27;re under investigation for it in several countries.<p>Hardware manufacturers would be better off with their own platform than forking Android. Because Android&#x27;s built that way. Between proprietary APIs apps are built on, and Google having a chokehold over the primary distribution channel for apps, forking leaves a manufacturer with almost nothing to go on. The only thing they gain is a loss: They don&#x27;t control the development direction of the platform.<p>Meanwhile, OEMs have to bear the cost of deploying software updates, even if they&#x27;re to fix Google&#x27;s security mistakes. When Stagefright went out, any of the few devices that got patched, that cost the OEMs money. Why isn&#x27;t Google paying the burden of all of that development and deployment? It&#x27;s their screw up! OEMs signed a deal with the devil on Android, and now they&#x27;re in a situation where they have no way to escape. Dropping Android means financial ruin, but sticking with it means they can&#x27;t do anything without Google&#x27;s approval.