That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, though admittedly I'm not based in China. That said I'd argue that embracing derivative platforms would be far worse, and likely to devalue Android as a whole. And justly so, for once.

I dont get that..Google provides open source os..if you want it use it. It is a bit out of order if you get Android OS, modify it slightly and sell it as your own :S

'Sell' isn't the right word but that's exactly what Amazon is doing, for example. It's just not something members of the Open Handset Alliance can do, as they've entered into an agreement to support and promote the platform along with Google. If Google had to support everyone's homebrew version of the platform, and I'm not talking about UI modifications or bundled software here, that would be terrible.

So, has it actually been confirmed that Google stepped in to stop the Acer launch or are we still just taking Alibaba's word for it? Last thing I read, neither Acer nor Google was talking about it.

Hmm I guess the this is just heating up from when I posted about it last week...

maybe in the future all different companies build their own android copy and make some kind of agreement so they can share apps between android's 'distros' and kick google out of the game