I am not sure why Asian Phone companies would do anything. As far as we see, only Chinese companies might want to. Asia is big and includes a lot more countries than China. Other asian countries are in the same bucket as Europe in moving to custom ecosystem.
Exactly. Original poster is trying to go into hyperbolics. Why would LG and Samsung want to participate in this and risk Google's wrath? Which user would like to get a phone without Google's apps on it? This is all looks good on paper as a so called strategy but in real implementation, almost impossible to implement. Consumers will just shift to another Google supported phone.
Samsung with their own apps has been hedging their bets that way.... but going all out and forking the OS and building a device (even for test) could get them kicked from the Open Handset Alliance.
It shows how open that alliance is if a test device can get you kicked out of it. Maybe that's exactly the reason why manufacturers would rather team up in an alliance that is truly that and not dominated by a single large player
It said Asian because Samsung is in the same boat, albeit for different reasons (think platform lockout instead of govt pressure). That's why the keep developing Tizen.
I assume that Japanese manufacturers are under a similar threat.
It's also likely a pressure tactic of sorts. Samsung shows that it could leave the reservation if it wants to, so Google doesn't push too hard when it comes to standardization, modifications to the base system, and preloaded apps. (For quality and monetization reasons, Google would likely prefer that all versions of Android were shipped as close to stock as possible.)
