, Columnist
The Balkanization of Android
Google and Samsung are increasingly working at cross purposes.
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The Android operating system for smartphones is one of the most successful technologies ever created. Apple Inc. sparked the smartphone revolution, but Android spread it to the masses. The software backed by Google parent company Alphabet Inc. powers more than 85 percent of the roughly 1.5 billion new smartphones sold each year.
Yet for all its success, Android looks increasingly in danger of falling apart.