Well this doesn’t seem like something Google would do. Honestly I didn’t think they cared what their manufacturers did. But according to Reuters and Slashgear, Acer was working with Chinese e-retailer Alibaba to release the CloudMobile A800 smartphone, but Google informed Acer that “Google would terminate Android product cooperation” if the device was announced and released. So far Acer has declined to make a public comment on the matter, but as more sites publish articles about this I’d expect a statement out of Acer.
Here’s what Alibaba had to say:
“Our partner received notification from Google” it said in a statement, “that if the new product launch with Aliyun went ahead, Google would terminate Android product cooperation and related technical authorization with Acer.”
It appears this was not over forking the Android OS, but Alibaba was intending on using another OS. An OS that runs Web apps based on Alibaba’s servers according to The Next Web. But the OS would still be able to run and install the Android apps we all love so much.
So far we haven’t heard anything from Google or Acer, so it’s extremely hard to tell what’s going on here since we don’t have all the sides to the story. Although Alibaba did post a statement on their news blog, basically saying that Google is being unfair to consumers, which I tend to agree with. But we will be sure to keep you updated on changes to this story.
Do you think this is bogus?