I dunno. I think a gargantuan manufacturer like Samsung could pose a bit of a threat to Google if they were to start seriously pushing their OS over Android. They control the majority of the smartphone market, and I somewhat doubt that the only reason people buy their phones is because of Android. If their OS proves to be good enough, I can easily see Samsung becoming the new Apple in the smartphone market, if not even bigger.

Of course, that's unlikely to happen if their OS turns out to be shit.

I think the time for that to happen has run its course. Nobody wants to rebuy a whole new set of apps, much less wait for them to get developed. Whatever new OS comes along is gonna have to already have a shit ton of apps already developed for it and the freebies that need to come from the OS developer need to be good enough for 95% of the users out there. I just don't see that happening without a multi-year mega push from Samsung.

They will need to learn how to develop a good OS, a good dev kit, spend multi years refining it and developing the baseline apps for it, and most likely will have to give anybody they hope to develop their apps for it time _and_ money.

I just don't see it.

Previous app purchases could pose a problem, but Android users are already known to buy less apps than users of other OS's. Samsung would have to have a good number of free or inexpensive apps ready from year one. It's impossible to reach Play Store levels quickly, but if they could get all the most popular ones, like Angry Birds, Youtube, a GOOD Email client, etc. early on, that would be a good first step. They'd have to make a huge marketing push, as well as give small developers extra incentive to develope for their platform as well. Perhaps strike a deal. Not to mention competing with Google's media store... It wouldn't come cheap, either, and you're right, it would take a number of years to get it off the ground, but I think Samsung is in a better position to do all of that then anyone else is at this point, if they really wanted to. Would it be profitable to go to such lengths to push a new OS when they're already in a good position with Android, though? I dunno.

I am pretty excited to see what they'll be bringing to the table.

Why replace Android when you can fork it, and pick and choose which Google services you want to keep?

And don't try to say that Google would just yank all their services off Samsung phones to punish Samsung. That would risk throwing away half of Google's Android users in a single stroke. It's really starting to look like Google needs Samsung more than Samsung needs Google, and that puts Samsung in the driver's seat.

So if Samsung started using their own OS, then google wouldnt let them use their own?  Doesnt make sense to me, lol.

I think that if this happened beyond whatever google's level of toleration is, then they will probably attempt to aid other manufacturers besides Samsung (and nokia).  This could be a costly option, giving subsidies to Sony, LG, or whoever has android, but it could force samsung to back down. 

So there are ways that google can correct this, if need be.

Still not good enough. Samsung has to develop of those services and they have to be better than Google's services. How long do you think it will take Samsung to an advertising system so they can begin to reap the benefits, because that right there would be the benefit they are looking for to justify doing this.

Again, they have to make equal or better services and apps to make people use their services. Personally if they started doing what people here are suggesting, id just delete whatever Samsung had and replace it with Googles apps. Look at what happened with Apples poor excuse for a map program on their own OS no less. Samsung is the big player until some other guy comes around and makes a slew of better phones.

@OP
you should post the source in the end... linked of course.

i know lots of people with galaxy phones (myself included) and all bought them because of 2 things... ANDROID first... second, galaxy line because of price/quality being a little better then others. All the galaxy running around and some faith in samsung as a phone maker also helped. But cut out android from the equation and samsung would be 100 times smaller in the mobile market. if they back track now, it would only hurt them. i might buy other samsung if it has android, if not, never more.

Alternatives to Google services already exist. Samsung can pick and choose whichever search provider, map provider, etc. will give them the better deal. That may even mean sticking with Google, but Samsung's increased leverage means Google will get a worse deal than it hoped when it launched Android. Google's strategy was to commoditize mobile hardware and software and make money on services, but it turns out that all the money in mobile is in the hardware and providing commoditized software opened the door for rival services.

And Samsung can afford to struggle with advertising for as long as it wants, because the profits it reaps from hardware sales today dwarf anything Google will see from mobile ads for many years. Samsung may even have an advantage in some key asian markets. Google is very weak in China.

A few, like you, will switch services to the Google your heart desires. The vast majority will stick with the default. In the last earnings call, Apple stated that despite drama over its newly-launched Maps application and Apple actively promoting alternative map services, usage of the default Maps app has actually been higher than ever.

@ dallas

Definitely a strategic option that Google will consider. I wouldn't expect to see any new Galaxy Nexus devices any time soon (There's a symbol of Samsung's clout right there. No other Nexus partner has managed to get their brand name onto the device, and preceeding the Nexus brand, too.). There is some risk that playing favourites with Samsung's competitors will strain the Google/Samsung relationship further and accelerate the schism, but the alternative is to stand around waiting for Samsung to crush all the competing OEMs under its marketing and manufacturing might, at which point Google will have no position at all.

Can you please post a source and make the links clickable. I mean you're already copy-pasting the whole article make a minimum effort.

So was Sony, Motorolla and Nokia at one point, and look what has happened. No company can keep up the winning streak for so long and Samsung will fall sooner or later, just like everybody else.