You've got it backwards - Amazon has been using a forked Android-without-Google-services for years now across many products, with varying levels of success. Kindle, Fire tablet, Fire phone, Fire TV, Echo, Echo Dot, and most recently Echo Show all run an Android fork[1]. Only now have they allegedly chosen to use official Android with Google services.
Perhaps they have decided that passing Androids CTS (and getting Google's blessing) is necessary for a successful phone? Or perhaps keeping their fork updated with Android HEAD is proving to be a challenge because the latest Fire OS is based off a 3-year old Android 5 (lollipop).
They failed with the Fire Phone to really make inroads as the value proposition wasn't there - they went too hard into their walled garden and priced themselves out of developing markets. Now this time they're trying a softer, longer term approach, especially in places where they don't have the reach at the moment to get lock in from day one. They have the Android development chops, the vision for where they want to get to, and the infra to start devolving phone features to the cloud, now all they need to do is get some dedicated users.
It's resetting their starting point for sure, but not sure it's an admittance their vision is wrong.
Source: echo team member
The fact that most people don't really know they have their own Android version with their own weird Android "app store" shows you how successful they were. Not much.
This might happen, but seems like wishful thinking. The web really damaged Windows, but the mobile web still has a looooong way to go to unseat mobile apps.
No matter how much noise the big guys make about voice as the next platform, voice is not going to replace most apps any time soon since it is just too low bandwidth as an output channel.
iOS is never getting rid of the App Store and given that it is the lead development platform for most apps it still sets the direction for the industry. Which is perfect for Google because it cements their control over the Android ecosystem as well.
If Amazon was smart they would go after Microsoft instead and try to build some smart, next-gen cross platform productivity and consumer apps backed by intelligent backend services. Control over user data is where the real money is.
its one thing to have alternative opinions about their strategy, but im not too sure about judging Amazon / Jeff Bezos as lacking in business smarts
What good would it be for Amazon to go after Microsoft's bread and butter? Google's already made its move towards them (Microsoft) with Chrome OS so I doubt there's really going to much more room for another titan.