[gress]

Only half of the 'android' phones use GMS which is licensed from Google. The others are based on AOSP, and Google has no control over those.

Since Android as a whole has around 80% market share globally, Google controls at best 40%'of it.

Samsung is a GMS licensee, and is certainly beholden to Google for their version of Android, but this in no way supports the claim that Google has grabbed the majority market share. They simply have not.

It serves Google for people to think they have more control over the market than they actually do, but it's bad for everyone else.

[snarf]

Also, the comparison of Android to Windows breaks down when you look at smartphone profit share. Unlike Windows, OEMs don't pay to license AOSP or GMS. While Google monetizes GMS through mobile advertising in their apps, the majority of the profits in the industry are from hardware sales/carrier subsidies (unlike the PC business which is mostly a commodity business). That is to say that most of the profits on "Android" are captured by companies like Samsung, HTC, and Amazon.