And you should be modded down again. You lack a basic understanding of statistics. The average is an average, you can't guarantee that exactly 50% will have a lower IQ than the average. If it turns out to be 50.001% or 49.999% you can't just change the average to make it exactly 50%.

That may be the case for large enough samples, but it's not a 'guarantee', or 'by definition'.

IQ results are scaled so that the average is 100. That doesn't mean 'by definition' that for any test group exactly 50% will be less than 100 and 50% will be more.

Take a case where the results were scaled to 100,105,99,99,98,99 so the average is 100. But two-thirds are 'dumber' than average.

For a large enough population the results will fit a normal distribution and the median and mean will coincide. That's different, and it's certainly not a guarantee for smaller groups.

Median. Not average.

Why is this modded +4? Google stole iOS source code??

You tell us to forget about Google apps and app store and then bring it up again?

Google Play and Google Apps run on Android. They are not open, and no one has ever claimed otherwise. No one is forced to use them. You can use other large app stores like Amazon or getjar.

It's not as open as your pet project? Too bad. The Jelly Bean source code has been out for a while. No other major OEM has released a Jelly Bean device yet (well you can count Asus). Want to beat them to it? Go for it: http://twitter.com/Arubin/status/27808662429

It has nothing to do with marketing. Amazon are not part of the OHA, they don't license anything from Google, Google has no leverage. Well they did, they could have refused to open source Android 4.0 (which the new Kindle Fires are based on), and 4.1. But they didn't.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/microsoft-wins-injunction-against-motorola-phones-in-germany/ [arstechnica.com]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/import-ban-on-motorolas-android-products-takes-effect-wednesday/ [arstechnica.com]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/microsoft-wins-injunction-against-motorola-phones-in-germany/

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/import-ban-on-motorolas-android-products-takes-effect-wednesday/

The Amazon discussion is kind of off topic here and my personal opinion. I feel that if Amazon had customized Android but retained compatibility, it would actually be better for Amazon because their tablets wouldn't be poorer cousins of devices capable of running Android apps, and would lead to more and higher quality apps across the Android ecosystem. They could still have skinned it to hell with Amazon services and products given prominent space and not license the Play store or Google apps. The difference would be that apps that work on a Nexus 7 would also work on a Kindle Fire.

The Fire breaks Android compatibility: http://source.android.com/compatibility/index.html

Android compatibility is free and doesn't oblige you to pay Google or include the Play store or any Google applications.

Android supports all Kindle Fire resolutions (1024x600,1280x800,1920x1200) and there are Android compatible devices available supporting those resolutions, that isn't the reason Amazon made it incompatible.

Google just tried to ban XBox 360 using standard required FRAND patents. Who says Google is not abusing patents?

After Microsoft went to court to ask for a ban on all Google-Motorola devices? You're right, they should have taken it lying down. Turn the other cheek etc.

Kindle can run google appstore apps just fine, you just have to install a set of libraries.

And just what percentage of users are going to be bothered to do that? My point is that Amazon's Android customizations fragment Android, and that's not good for anyone who has or wants to consider owning an Android device. The fact that a minority of us will hack it to run Google apps doesn't affect that.

You've got several things wrong..

1. Don't use any official Android distributions (operate as a niche/self-supported market, ie. Amazon)
2. Use any combination of Android and forked android-derived distributions, but can't join the OHA
3. Join the OHA and use only an official Google Android derived OS

That's completely wrong.

You have several choices:

1) Develop an Android compatible device, compatible with existing Android applications, and don't pay a cent to Google or anyone else for Android.

Sell your devices with getjar app store, Amazon app store, Bing as default search, Nokia maps, change the UI, whatever the hell you want as long as you don't break compatibility.

2) Do 1) and also join OHA. Still don't pay a cent to Google, still sell your devices with getjar app store, Amazon app store, Bing as default search, Nokia maps, change the UI, whatever the hell you want as long as you don't break compatibility.

3) Do 1) and 2) and also license Google applications and the Google Play app store.

4) Use the open source Android code (definition of open) and do whatever the hell you want with it like Amazon, modify it, make it incompatible with Google's Store and current Android applications, don't pay anything to Google, don't join the OHA, get the source code for new versions of Android soon after Google announces them, make your own app store.

Acer chose option 3) for their current devices. Google said if they're doing option 4) with Alibaba, they cannot also do option 2) and/or 3). And Acer made their choice, nothing was forced on them. All Google could do was force Acer to leave the OHA and refuse to license Google Play and other Google applications to them. Acer could still make Android compatible devices, even continue to sell their current devices with the Amazon app store for example. They chose to remain part of the OHA.

the OEMs are already way behind in keeping official Android up to date in their design and production pipelines even with that inside track and help from Google. An OEM on its own trying to make an official Android device is thus at a large disadvantage against OEMs that are part of the OHA.

That's simply not true. Some of the first non Google devices to come out with Android 4.0 were from Chinese low end manufacturers who are not part of the OHA, much before the bigger well known OHA members. That was because the OEMs insist on customizing their devices to distinguish them from stock Android. And far from being uncompetitive, those manufacturers have been incredibly successful. Some have gone on to license Google Play and Google Apps. Want to beat Google? Make your own app store and your own apps that are better than Google's proprietary apps like Maps Gmail etc. Amazon are trying. Acer didn't want to take up that challenge. No one forced Acer to do anything. They made a choice.

They build an open source operating system. When they refuse to release Honeycomb, people start claiming they're going back on the open source commitment. They release ICS and JB source code less than a week after the official announcement. They literally give Android away for free - http://twitter.com/Arubin/status/27808662429

Yet they get far more criticism than Microsoft and Apple running increasingly closed ecosystems. They get blamed for Android fragmentation. Now, when they decide to do something about fragmentation, they get blamed again. It's pretty simple isn't it, you join OHA and you maintain compatibility with Android. Or you don't, like Amazon, and take the source code for free and whatever the hell you want with it. Is that really so onerous for Acer?

When Android OEMs get sued with crap patents, Google gets blamed. Even when it's Samsung, a far bigger company who is making the majority of profits off Android (Google isn't making nearly as much), Google is somehow supposed to show up and save the day for them. When Google registers patents of their own, every time there's a Slashdot story about the pot calling the kettle black although Google have NEVER used patents to sue anyone except in retaliation, not their search patents, not their Hadoop, Mapreduce, etc. patents.

If you're an Android device used, you should be glad Google is doing this. The last thing we need is another Amazon. Try playing with a Kindle Fire - Amazon completely skinned Amazon and made it incompatible with normal Android apps. I have tried putting many in through apks, most install but almost none work properly. Despite coming with a powerful dual core processor, the devices are terribly slow and laggy. The browser is awful compared to Chrome or Safari on mobile devices. They could have gone with a completely skinned version of compatible Android, with their own skin but retain compatibility with apps. Instead, we get different versions of Android apps for the Kindle Fire. I am not sure this even works in Amazon's favour, they could still have sold all the content and made proper tablets offering real tablet functionality, not glorified content consumption devices with terribly proprietary software.

Here's the kicker:
You don't have to pay Google a cent to retain Android compatibility. Amazon could do exactly what they are doing now: run their own app store instead of using Google Play, use Nokia maps, use Bing as the default search engine, put their own browser in that tracks all websites you visit. Google's own Motorola branded handset, the RAZR M ships with the Amazon app store installed. I don't know why Google let this happen, it makes no business sense. But it's good for us consumers, you don't even have to be tied to the Google Play store.