> "Android" per-se is Apache 2, i.e. free to use without restrictions (thus Amazon's "Fire OS").
That's why I stressed "in a factory". No factory which makes commercial Android is permitted to make unlicensed android.
That's why I stressed "in a factory". No factory which makes commercial Android is permitted to make unlicensed android.
According to [1], OEMs can use Android trademarks as long as they conform to the Android compatibility standard, which doesn't require a license for the Google Mobile Service (Google Play, etc) [2]. If you do want to brand it as an Android device, you largely just have to maintain compatibility with the Android ecosystem regardless of whether you distribute Google apps. If you don't want to use the Android trademark (which is independent of the source code), you don't have to do anything.
So Amazon can't get Acer to build them phones or tablets. As most independent manufacturers build Android phones, Amazon had a hard time finding someone to make Fire for them.