#2 sounds like it would prevent manufacturers from developing or using Android forks on completely other devices so, for example, you could not sell a device with Amazon's Fire OS (Even without Google's apps, so no hindrance to Google's branding) while also selling other Android devices with Google's apps. Would seriously hinder entry-to-market for Android-based forks.

To be clear, I have not read the original agreements to confirm this is the case, it's just my interpretation of #2.

> #2 suggests Google just didn't want phones with ancient or beta versions of Android in the market with Google branding

I think that would have been acceptable - my reading of #2 is that if you sold phones with a fork of Android, even if that phone did not have Google branding, Google would not allow you to sell *any* phones with Google branding. That does seem very similar to the Microsoft example.

Requiring that someone cannot use Google branding on a phone with an ancient version of Android is legal.

Requiring that someone cannot use Google branding on any device they manufacture or sell, if they also manufacture or sell devices without Google branding that use ancient versions of Android, is entirely illegal in the EU.

> with Google branding

Then the rule was overly broad, since it also prevented them from selling Android phones without Google branding. I think Amazon was involved in that lawsuit after it had issues finding a manufacturer that wasn't bound by that rule.

Why would a manufacturer sell both devices with ancient and current versions of Android at the same time? There is no reason to limit this behavior because no one would do it. This is entirely about smothering AOSP forks.

> versions of the Android operating system not approved by Google

That could include deprecated versions and any forks.

> Is it? My reading of #2 suggests Google just didn't want phones with ancient or beta versions of Android in the market with Google branding.

Judging only by gp's message, it also targets any would-be competitor's fork of Android.