[option_greek]

"This distinction means that Apple/Amazon's interests are more aligned with consumers than Google's."

Not necessarily. It simply means they have more incentive tying you down to their 'product' and stifle any competition. Google on the other hand couldn't care less about what device you use as long as you use their services.

[chii]

so instead of tying you down to the device, they tie you down to their services. In my eyes, thats not too different.

At least with a physical device, you may be able to subvert any ill intentions.

[icebraining]

They do? Then they do a crappy job at it, since when I moved out of Gmail and GReader and when I get something on Google Docs, I could export my data in standard formats.

You should really tell them they're screwing their tying down plans with their Data Liberation initiative, the Google Takeout and all those APIs.