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Comment by wmf | Hacker News Reader

If I was building a new console I think I'd just use straight Linux; what value does Android bring?

An application sandboxing/deployment/sales system, coupled with high-level application/platform APIs that are considerably more coherent than the gnome/kde/whole-universe-of-libraries C mess.

A console maker is going to bring their own deployment/sales system, and they're going to choose a single library stack. So no advantages there.

An existing console maker.

On the other hand, look at the Kindle Fire, and the rest of the Android ecosystem.

I'd just like to point out that Amazon didn't use the Android Market for the Fire but used their own ecosystem (whether you want to argue that they built the Amazon app store for the purpose of putting it on their own devices is another story). So they didn't actually use the existing Android sales/distribution ecosystem.

But the purpose of the Kindle Fire is to be part of the Amazon ecosystem.

I don't understand why amazon didn't offer HDMI connection on the fire(and a separately sold cradle). They could have sold more units, have more prime users and get some control on the TV and the gaming market.

That's what I was thinking too when I asked the question. With all the commodity hardware - controllers etc - around these days surely someone with motivation could build a ps3 equivalent around android, x86 and AMD/NVIDIA chips. Build their own app store etc for their games (or not, they would just kill any phone :P).

It's a really exciting and intriguing concept to me - disrupting console gaming.

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