Why doesn’t Google charge like $5 for every Android phone sold instead of giving Android away for free
Shhhh - don't give them any ideas!!
Google makes a ton of cash on its apps.
They are using the old Kodak business model. Give the OS away, but make up for it through the sale of apps.
The hidden costs of building an Android device
Google does not charge for its Android software, but manufacturers have to pay specialist firms thousands to gain a licence to use it
Android software is free and open-source, but without Google Play, a device will have minimal functionality.
Some mobile and tablet manufacturers are being charged six-figure fees by third party testing facilities for a licence to use Gmail, Google Play and other parts of Google's mobile services, the Guardian has learned.
The fees, which can range from $40,000 to $75,000, are part of a largely hidden production process for the hundreds of large and small manufacturers in the mobile device industry.
The Android mobile operating system is free for consumers and for manufacturers to install, but manufacturers need a licence to install Gmail, Google Maps and the Google Play store - collectively called Google Mobile Services (GMS).
Manufacturers can be refused a licence if they do not meet Google's requirements. Google does not charge for a GMS licence, but any company producing an Android device will need a certificate from an authorised testing facility in order to apply for the licence. That often incurs fees.
One source told the Guardian that the fee varies and is negotiated on a case-by-case basis, with one example costing $40,000 for a batch of at least 30,000 devices. A separate source said that in another deal, a testing facility quoted $75,000 to test 100,000 devices.
Because Android is Linux and that is based on Unix, so they pretty much stole it.....
The answer is that Google is not an Operating System or Software company. It is an advertising company. The more people they have using Android the more people they have seeing their ads and the more people they are mining data on. You are NOT their customer, you are their product because they sell your data, information they glean by watching your every move, every email you send, every where you go carrying your Android device. It is in Google's interest to give away the operating system to cheap phone makers so they use it with their customers so Google can monitor more and more people to maximize profits and sell more advertising.
Apple does not do any of that. Apple makes its money by selling hardware, services to those hardware buyers, consumable content, and some software. The people who buy Apple's hardware, services, content, and software are its direct customers.
Google wants to know _everything_ for data mining & targeted advertising. Android does that far more than you imagine.
Google wants as much information about you as possible. If you could see your personal dossier at Google, it would blow your mind. They'll make way more than $5 off of your personal information.
Because they make the real money on mining your information and selling it.